Last week, Hulu released several science fiction shows on its site while YouTube rolled out a series of feature updates. It highlights the different direction each company is taking in their quest for video dominance on the web.

It may be a sign of things to come as Hulu continues to push out more content from its affiliated networks. On Saturday the company announced the debut of 4 new shows, including:

• Firefly
• Roswell
• The Outer Limits
• Futurama

Hulu mentions that “all these series had devoted and outspoken fans, and we hope those of you who count yourselves among them will enjoy this opportunity to reconnect with these shows.”

The pull tactic Hulu is employing may work quite effectively as they appeal to a built-in base of fans with free content supported by limited advertising.

YouTube, on the other hand, relies on its users to push interesting content to the site. That means the site needs to encourage participation with a slick interface and lots of community building features.

No longer a new kid on the block, YouTube knows that, and is actively developing new features. Here are YouTube’s latest releases announced Friday:

• New videos tab, which merges the video and category tabs
• Most active & previously popular
• Channel results now included in search
• Music subcategories added like rock, pop, and hip-hop
• RSS links on video browse pages, which provides updates for the search terms most important to you
• Profile picture, allows users to upload a custom picture for their channel
• Close and suspended accounts will now automatically be removed from subscriptions
• In a throwback to the past, comments voting is now optional again on your videos

Related:

Entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 3:20 pm under Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Matt Jansen.
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