Viddling Around™

In yet more news this morning, Dabble has officially come out of closed beta.

Don’t know where exactly they rank in the list of 170+ YouTube clones, but at first blush around their site, it’s extremely difficult for me to figure out where their differentiation or advantage is. They haven’t yet matched the list of YouTube features, their categorization model is simplistic at best (and no, I don’t mean “simple”). The only somewhat distinctive feature that I noticed is their “Request” menu choice, which offers a way for audience members to post requests for specific footage. There’s Calls for Entries for various contests, folks looking for any footage someone might have taken of a specific event like a protest march, et cetera.

While I’ve only seen this type of effort on a couple of sites, it’s interesting that Dabble hasn’t made a bigger deal out of this, and showcased it on their home page. Instead, being tucked away on a menu choice means that either they still have something up their sleeve, or just don’t get it. Not sure which.