Viddler

Last week we launched an all-new version of Viddler that had a number of signifigant improvements to the current site as well as a brand new version called Groups.

Groups are small communities created by Viddlers to help group together videos, people, and dicussions into one centralized location. I thought I’d cover a few basic things about groups; How to join or create a group, how to add a video to a group, how to invite your friends to a group, and what we’ve seen so far since launching groups.

Joining or creating a group

I suppose in order to join a group you must first find one that you’re interested in. This can be done in a few ways. The first would be to simply browse the groups that already exist. We’re listing groups based on popularity at the moment; which takes into consideration the number of members, videos, and discussions going on inside of that group. Or, perhaps you’d like to see the very latest groups that have been created. Or, maybe you already know what you are looking for, and would just use the search to see if a group exists for that interest.

But what if you don’t find a group the suits you? Well you can create a group yourself! To do so, click Create Group at the top of any Groups page and fill in the simple form.

Ok, now you’ve found a group (we’ll use the coffee group for our example) and you want to join it. Near the title of the group you’ll see a button that says “Join Group”. By clicking it you’ll be asked to confirm your request and poof! You’re now the newest member in the Coffee group.

Adding videos to a group

Now that you’re a member of the coffee group, you’ll probably want to add your coffee related videos to the group. To do this navigate to the video that you’d like to add and directly underneath the video you’ll see a new button “Add to group”. By clicking this button Viddler will then show you the groups you’ve joined and/or created and adding them is a snap!

Invite your friends along!

Inviting your friends into groups is really easy. First, go to the coffee group (again, as an example). Then choose the Invite tab on the far right. From here you can choose from a list of your friends, enter in the usernames of those you think might be interested, or simply jot down the email addresses of those you’d like to see join the group! Its that easy.

So now that you’ve got the basic group functions down - go forth and play with Groups!

Cool groups so far

We’ve only launched them last week, and we’re already starting to see our Viddlers use them in ways we think are awesome. Of course we have the MeToday and MealToday groups that are going really well (don’t forget you can win an iPhone by doing MealToday’s through the month of August). A group I think is really cool is Brandice’s VidChallenge group where she, and others, challenge each other. There’s a great group for both Philadelphia and Houston (expect more cities to pop up soon). We have groups for great shows like ForkYouTV and WineLibraryTV. Ma.gnolia is using their group to bring together their great screencasts as well as other videos about using Ma.gnolia. And how cool is it that we have a group just for music videos from the SushiRaw record label.

So go forth and explore our groups, create your own, and join your friends in sharing videos, meeting new people, and having discussions about your favorite things!