Viddler is a video training service based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, but in the past was a video hosting site for user generated content.
History[]
Viddler was initially launched in 2005, but otherwise little is known about it. On the surface, Viddler had many of the same features as YouTube back in the late-2000s and had a similar layout to Dailymotion. One unique feature was them having live recording features; if you have a webcam, you can record videos onto the site through a dedicated record feature. It appears to have also allowed users to share photos via Flickr and embed Twitter posts.
It is another relatively obscure video hosting site, at least when compared to more contemporary ones like Dailymotion and Vimeo, but it has seen some use compared to other obscure video hosting sites. Indeed, it was a common go-to for YouTubers who created game reviews and perhaps Viddler had a stronger userbase compared to Veoh. One such notable user was ijustine.
In 2010, Viddler gradually shifted their business model toward corporate training, and began to remove user registration by 2011. Those who had accounts by then were unaffected by the shift until 2014, when Viddler removed free accounts entirely; users could either switch to a paid plan or download their videos before their accounts were closed. In spite of the purge, those who agreed to upgrading to a paid account had kept their videos. In fact, paid accounts still very much survive on Viddler with their content intact, though there are very few who remain from Viddler's heyday as an alternate video hosting site and their content is largely not promoted under Viddler's radical shift.
Links[]
- Viddler, Circa March 2nd, 2009 on the WayBack Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20090303103258/http://www.viddler.com/
- A surviving Viddler account: https://www.viddler.com/channel/rootbrian