Time 12:27

Video use on the Web is much more than a two-minute case study or a talking head from a presentation. The numbers from an eMarketer report this summer show 86 percent of U.S. Internet users will consume online video by 2011, up from 62 percent last year — that’s 114 million people who watched video online in 2006.

Whether it’s purchasing video online from iTunes, consuming viral video from YouTube, or taking in the growing number of high-end video channels like Cigar Cinema, there are as many varieties of video technologies as there are videos on the ‘Net.

Brightcove has been a video player (and literally a player for videos) and hosting service that I have used for nearly two years. Its technology is elegant. Brightcove gave a little tremor to the user community a couple of weeks ago when it announced changes to its consumer accounts, which, as of Dec. 18, will no longer be accepting uploads to consumer or personal accounts. Instead, Brightcove is putting great emphasis on its network and platform accounts and its ad network.

In this podcast Adam Berrey, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Brightcove, highlights how businesses can still use Brightcove’s sophisticated platform and Web-based production tools called Brightcove Console. Here’s the official Brightcove announcement.

What is striking to me is how many different ways video is being used on the Web; some technologies offer overlapping capabilities, and others are focused on a specific niche. Here are just a few examples:

Brightcove: video hosting platform with an excellent player. CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, Discovery Channel, GM and Dupont are just a few of the companies using Brightcove.

vSocial: video hosting platform used in many user-generated social media campaigns. In addition to large companies, vSocial has many options for small businesses. Examples: Amateur Golf, sponsored by Titleist, and Volleyball.com.

Blip.tv: a platform for a new kind of video show. These are a variety of comedy, drama, news and other genres that are gaining a new audience. It’s a proving ground that television can not provide. For the right company, it can be a place to explore the creative horizons of your brand.

Proclaim: a presentation platform that lets users have a presenter’s video in a portion of the screen while also showing video clips, images, PowerPoint slides and more. It can host live or recorded webcasts and is best-suited for business presentation-style videos. Here’s a sample of what it looks like. (FYI: We do communications consulting for this company and use this product regularly.)

Oovoo.com: a video conferencing platform with multiple screens that can be shared and viewed simultaneously

Seesmic.com: a tool designed for video conversations. Seesmic lets users quickly record or upload videos and reply to conversations others have started. The site is currently a “pre-alpha” release, so it’s very early in the development process, and the exclusive access has the blogging community a-buzz.

It’s a bit like me choosing ice cream: I have a few favorites, and some flavors are right for a certain mood, but most any ice cream is good to me.

Key resources for following the video streaming space include Dan Rayburn of StreamingMedia.com and a list of resources he points us to.

There are tons more video resources. Here is a longer list.

Videos on the Web are as common as Web sites, if you include all user-generated and professionally produced content. Test these leading technologies now. Evaluate which parts of your company’s message are be suited for video. Then: Lights, camera, action.