Star Alert

The Industry's Leading Review and Comparison Web Site

Video Sharing Reviews

Video Sharing Articles

- Video Star
- Video Sharing

StarReviews Alerts

Get alerts on your favorite products and services

I agree to the Privacy Policy

Request A Review

Metacafe

- Star Review

Last Updated: 3/19/2009

Metacafe Star Rating

GoTo Metacafe	Email This Review
Member Reviews

The Star Reviews team loves video sharing sites and we thought we’d take a look at Metacafe. After all, they say they ‘Serve the world’s best videos.’ We immediately noticed how many unique videos were displayed on the Metacafe homepage and we couldn’t wait to dig deeper. Here's what we found on the rest of the site.

What’s New with MetaCafe Video Sharing?

Production School – free advice on how to create better videos for sharing
Add mood messages to your Skype VOIP service using Metacafe footage

Star Reviews Favorite MetaCafe Feature:

Producer Rewards-Who says you need to be a Hollywood producer to earn cash? After your video clip is viewed 20,000 times, you earn $100. For two million views, you can earn $10,000. To participate, you must have complete ownership of your clip and it must be appropriate for a mainstream audience.

Metacafe Video Sharing Features:

Subscribe to videos uploaded by your favorite producers
Protect younger viewer by turning the Family Filter on or off
View millions of user-created clips
Metacafe Blog and Forums
Video update news by email
Video editing tips & resources
Featured producers

About Metacafe's Video Sharing Service:

Metacafe boasts a large viewership. Around 16 million unique visitors watch clips on the site every month. The company is based in California, as well as Israel, and is supported by a combination of private funding and advertising revenue. The site uses a metrics systems that allows it to promote the videos which are considered the best of the best by viewers. They are committed to hosting the world’s best videos, which we can tell by their numerous resourced on how to better one’s videos for sharing.

Navigating the Metacafe Video Sharing Site:

Metacafe makes it easy to find video clips as well as to view them. You can search for videos by key words in specific categories. Other links will take you to the most discussed, most viewed, and most recent clips if you're just looking to pass some time. Producers can easily reach the “Submit” page by clicking on the tab on the home page, then logging into their account. You can also utilize the handy-dandy drop down menu with categories such as ‘News & Events’ and ‘Comedy.’ You can then filter out search results based on criteria such as ‘Most Discussed’ or ‘Most Viewed’ to feast your eyes on the best videos around.

Using Metacafe's Video Sharing Services:

Metacafe is pretty simple to use and post your personal videos online. To view a video, just click on the clip, and you can view it right in your browser. Submitting your clips is also simple. You just browse your computer for the file you want to upload, give it a title, a description, and a few more pieces of information. Once completing the simple entry box, all you have to do is submit it. Before your clip is available to the public, it has to spend some time being reviewed by Metacafe's team of reviewers. They then in turn determine whether the clip should be included on the site, if it needs different filters, or if it qualifies for the Producer Reward program. The review process can take a week or more, so patience is required on this video sharing site.

Video Sharing Pricing:

Using Metacafe as a viewer or a producer of clips is completely free. In fact, through the Producer Reward program you can actually EARN money by putting your clips on the site. The free price tag does come with a cost, however. Be prepared to occasionally see ads before your clips and advertisements playing on different pages of the sites. Hey, you can’t always have your cake and eat it too.

MetaCafe Customer Support:

Like YouTube, Metacafe does not provide an extensive amount of customer service options. Your best choice is to visit the site's Help Center. The number of questions addressed in the Help Center is limited, but the answers are very in-depth and detailed. If you don't find your answer or if you need more information, you can submit a Feedback Form.

On the positive note, you don't need to be a member before you submit a question and you aren't constantly redirected back to the FAQs when you're filling out the form. When we submitted a request for more information via the form, we received a response in less than 24 hours with several links taking us directly to the pages where we could find answers. We would have liked to see a more personalized approach to customer support, but we really found all we needed in the FAQs.

Upside:
Fast email customer support. Site is easy to navigate. Earn cash with Producer Rewards.

Downside:
Number of FAQ's is limited. Some ads are on the site and before the clips.

Summary:
Star Reviews thinks Metacafe is one of the best video sharing services on the Internet. Thanks to careful research, we learned that Metacafe has a number of useful features, including a family filter to keep young viewers away from questionable content, and a good selection of user-created clips. The customer support via email was fast and useful, even though some of the advertising on the site was a bit annoying. The free price for the services and the easy to use site make Metacafe an ideal alternative to YouTube. We especially loved how the Producer Rewards program actually lets quality video clips and producers earn some money for sharing their best videos. What incentive to come back for more!

GoTo Metacafe

Metacafe Member Reviews

Member Rating (based on 0 reviews)		No Member Reviews

Leave a Comment GoTo Star Review GoTo Metacafe

There are no user reviews for Metacafe. Click here to be the first user to review Metacafe.