Google Video is not a good counter example to Jumpcut. I think Google Video works perfectly. The point of Google Video is to view videos, which it allows you to

Google Video is not a good counter example to Jumpcut. I think Google Video works perfectly. The point of Google Video is to view videos, which it allows you to do without an account. To share a video you need to have an account, same as in Jumpcut. (Typically you have to make users create an account to post content otherwise a never ending stream of spam is likely to follow, degrading the quality of the service for legitimate users) For Jumpcut, the real value in letting the user upload and edit a video is to get a feel for the video editing functionality without having to sign up, (since the video editing is really their selling point). If the user likes what they've created they can sign up to post it. This is key. Let the user try out the idea of your site without signing up. You can then require them to signup if they like it and want to keep their work. Recently there was another post where somebody had a startup that had some cool way to learn a foreign language http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=144998 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=144998 I wanted to check it out but had to sign up to really see how it all worked. So I left.