Hulu V. Youtube

I, like many others I'm sure, have used both Hulu and Youtube extensively. I do use the two sites for very different reasons, however.

On youtube, I am usually there to watch entertaining clips from home videos or other places that would be difficult to find elsewhere. A good example of this is the clip I just watched, The Best Bloopers Ever, which feature fisherman Bill Dance and his hilarious outtakes from his fishing show on (I think) public broadcasting. Outside of youtube, where else would one be able to find that clip? I high;y doubt there are season DVDs of the show, and if there were I assume they would be very simple and would not contain bloopers or outtakes.

Another big reason I use youtube is for music. I am often looking for new music in my spare time and if I hear about a band that might be interesting, it is normally very easy to find one or many of their songs on the video sharing site, whether it is accompanied by an actual video, lyrics, or just a still from the album cover.

Hulu, on the other hand, is of course more television based. The site has agreements with numerous networks to allow online video of many TV shows, though they often only have the last few episodes aired. It is a great resource for TV shows that you may have missed, if you are lucky enough that Hulu has an agreement to air them. Personally, I use it fairly frequently to watch The Office and Community.

Both sites do feature advertising as it has always been a part of Hulu and Youtube just recently began using it. My adblocker generally rids me of the ads on youtube, but it doesn't block those on Hulu. Personally, for Hulu I am happy to see the ads as they provide a great service by having thses shows online for whenever I have a chance to watch them and I understand they need advertising to continue purchasing more shows to stream. Youtube, on the other hand, I am not as happy with advertising, though I understand its necessity as the site has become one of the biggest money-losers on the web. Still, I don't particularly want to watch a thirty second ad before I watch a 3 second clip of Sergeant Doakes in Dexter say "Surprise, motherfucker."