The number of video-sharing sites has shot through the roof recently, as dozens of companies try to become the Flickr of the online video world.  To this end, many video services have started offering new features like editing and remixability in an attempt to snatch a piece of the ever-expanding online video pie.  But for the average user--who just wants to post a video on the 'net and share it with some friends--there are already too many options out there.  All one really wants to know is, which site is going to work, with the least amount of hassle?

I took 10 of these sites out for a test drive, and picked some winners.  If you want to post, watch, share, or edit video online, this post's for you.

To test each service, I uploaded my demo reel (a 15MB Sorenson 3-encoded Quicktime file) to each site and compared video quality, site interface, community features, and functionality.  Where applicable I also tried to embed the resulting video in a Wordpress page.  Many of these sites are still in beta, and their functionality could change in the coming months, but if you're looking to post and share video today, this is the current state of things.

Eyespot

Appeal: Easy-to-use video uploading and remixing.
Interface: Bright and colorful.  Tagging, forums, groups.  Not a lot of community features.
Editing:  Trim beginning and end, reorder clips on a timeline, add music and photos.
Sharing:  Post to a group, invite a friend to the service (but not directly to your clip).
Verdict: Uploading straightforward and painless.  But: 25MB filesize limit too small.  Mashup features fall short of Grouper's "groovies," and it's not even in the same ballpark as Jumpcut when it comes to mixing and editing.  Not a lot of reason to use Eyespot, in its current incarnation.

Google Video

Appeal: It's Google.
Interface: Typically clean and sparse Google layout.  Uploading requires you download the Google Video Uploader.  Allows you to add plenty of metadata, including a transcript.  You can monetize your content by assigning a sale price to each clip (you can also give users a "day pass," giving them access to the content for a limited time, but not ownership).
Editing: None.
Sharing: See below.
Verdict: Google Video requires a "video verification" process, where your submission is reviewed to ensure it conforms to Google's technical standards and legal policies.  This process "may take several days," so check back for an update.

Grouper

Appeal: YouTube with a file-sharing application built on top.
Interface: For full functionality, requires an application download. Windows Media Player-based (converts other formats).  Ratings, tagging, groups, RSS feeds.
Editing: Create mashups of your videos and photos, set to music ("groovies").
Sharing: Post direct to myspace, friendster, eBay.  Download to hard drive, iPod.
Verdict: "Groovies" are easy to create and could be very popular.  But: File-sharing application seems half-baked (and is undifferentiated from existing options).  "Groovies" will prove much more popular if they can be built online without having to download the app.  E-mail registration system was a pain; had to do it twice to get confirmed.  After several hours, my file was still unavailable, as the service was still "upload processing."

Jumpcut

Appeal: Create, edit, and remix video online.
Interface:  Slick interface feels more like an application than a web page.  Scales all videos to a larger size than other sites, but videos don't autoplay and there is no indication of what portion of the video has already been downloaded.
Editing:  Bar-none the best editing options of the bunch.  Splice your footage, reorder the shots, add music, photos, transitions, even effects--think iMovie in an online interface.  Very, very slick.
Sharing:  Email to a friend, embed in a web page (worked flawlessly in Wordpress).
Verdict: Playing with Jumpcut's features, you immediately understand that the future of online video is here.  No current competitor can touch it.  But:  Get too effects crazy and your video slows down.  Jumpcut doesn't re-render your files with every remix--which leaves the original video quality intact--but playback of edited files is not perfectly smooth. Don't throw out iMovie just yet.

Ourmedia

Appeal:  "The Global Home for Grassroots Media."
Interface: Slow, confusing, and messy.  Requires an Internet Archive account, and the integration of the two services is convoluted.  Keeps your content in its native format, which is both good and bad--it doesn't recompress your video, but it requires its users to have several different players installed correctly.  Creative Commons licenses built-in. 
Editing: None.
Sharing: RSS feeds, email to a friend, direct link to files from your own site.
Verdict:  Going forward, a good place to upload your media if it is socially-conscious or activist by nature.  Also works as an online repository for video/audio storage.  But: One of the most difficult sites to upload video to.  Current "alpha" version falls far short of potential--wait for the next version.

Revver

Appeal: YouTube with monetization--if people watch your video (and the embedded ad), you get paid 20% of what the advertiser pays Revver.  If they click on the Revver link at the end, you split the proceeds 50/50.
Interace: Quicktime-based.  Requires you to download a client for uploading content.  Tagging, emailing, rating, playlisting.
Editing: None.
Sharing: See below.
Verdict: Offers a unique revenue-sharing model that may appeal to content owners and producers.  But: Uploading process is convoluted (the promised drag-and-drop functionality was nowhere to be found).  After trying to upload my file using the Revver client twice, my video was still listed as "unavailable."  I later received an email from Revver stating that my submission may contain unauthorized material that requires clearances--which is true.  Because Revver and Google Video are the only sites in this roundup that let you monetize your content, we'll be back with an update comparing the two.

Videoegg

Appeal: Lets you painlessly upload video of any format to the web and post it to other sites or share it with friends.
Interface: Requires you download an application in order to upload.  The download seamlessly embeds in your browser to give you drag-and-drop functionality.
Editing:  Basic trimming of beginning and end points.
Sharing: Post direct to eBay, Blogger, and Typepad.  Creates a simple URL, lets you email the video, and gives you javascript and html code for embedding in your own pages.
Verdict: Painless experience.  If you only need to post and share video with friends, Videoegg just works.  Flash 8 video quality is pretty decent.  But: Video didn't embed properly in other pages (Wordpress).


Vimeo

Appeal: Flickr for video.
Interface: Nice and clean, uses a flash wrapper to play native formats.  No download required, simple and easy uploads.  Tagging, commenting, voting.  Nice player with a volume control and no burned-in logo.
Editing: None in the current version.
Sharing: Post to Flickr, send to del.icio.us, download original file, embed in your MySpace profile or blog, create an RSS feed.
Verdict:  Good video quality. Embedding the video in Wordpress worked flawlessly.  But: Light on community features, and weekly storage cap of 20 megs is too limiting.

vSocial

Appeal: "The fastest, easiest way to upload, watch and share your favorite video clips."
Interface: All Web 2.0'd-out.  Big fonts, AJAX, tagging, rating, reviewing, RSS feeds, creative commons licenses.
Editing: Offers "edit this video" functionality, which I couldn't test (see below).  Can also create "Video Rolls," which are customized playlists generated from your selected criteria.
Sharing: Embed in your own page, MySpace, Typepad, Blogger, del.icio.us, Flickr, Blog It! (write a post on your own blog about a video without leaving vSocial).
Verdict: Lots of community features.  But: Didn't live up to their "fastest" or "easiest" claim--I never successfully got a video uploaded (tried three times).  Quality of existing clips is less than stellar--everything's resized to 320X240.  Your mileage may vary, but even with a Quicktime file that uploaded to other sites without a problem, I never got vSocial to work.

YouTube

Appeal: The video-sharing site everyone's already heard of.  Mindshare-winner by a mile.
Interface: Tabbed pages feature ratings, favorites, flagging, tagging, and commenting.  Create playlists, subscribe to other's uploads, subscribe to tags.  The player only features a mute button (rather than level control), and full-screening the video opens a new window and starts playback over.
Editing:  None.
Sharing: Embed in other websites, including Friendster, eBay, Blogger, MySpace.
Verdict: Easy to use, no major issues.  Decent video quality, audio sounds compressed.  Video embedded in Wordpress fine (but was off-center).  But: No progress bar for uploading.  Fairly lengthy "processing" delay before you (or anyone else) can watch your video.

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

For posting: If you just want to get a video clip online and share it with friends via email or on your own blog, Vimeo wins for its speed, ease-of-use, and simple playback functions.  It also lets users download the original file, and features some light community features (note that a new version is launching very soon).  One of the few sites I used that I never had a problem with.  Alternate choice: Videoegg.

For viewership: If you want to step up to more community features and get widespread viewership of your viral clip, YouTube gets the job done with a lot less hassle than vSocial or Grouper.

For editing: If you want to alter your video online in any way--through editing, remixing, or combining your clips with those from other users--then head on over to Jumpcut and don't look back.  Jumpcut really offers the first leap forward in online video sharing, and is worth a look even if you have no use for editing features (its full-fledged community is launching "very soon").  Alternate choice: none, yet, although Motionbox looks to be a potential competitor.

For this roundup, I left out more services than I reviewed.  This is because many of them are mere YouTube clones, at least in their current state (e.g., CastPost, ClipShack, Dailymotion).  Others, like Dabble and the aforementioned Motionbox, are not yet publicly available.  You're welcome to check out a list of 40 video sharing sites at eConsultant, all of which I at least glanced at.  TechCrunch also has some great coverage of the developing online video scene.  Finally, please add your own experiences and comments below, and feel free to disagree with my choices.