You TubeEven though I work at a computer most of the time, it still blows me away: the power of the web.

It wasn’t so very long ago that most “knowledge” was tied up in text books and encyclopedias. To get any worthwhile information or advice meant going to the library or buying an appropriate book. That was slow and often painful.

Now we can access info on almost anything via the web. To a degree we can even diagnose an illness online, fix our car or order a belated gift for the other half. All at the click of a mouse.

I love YouTube as one of the best sites to get info from. The reasons are numerous but the main ones are…

  1. Impartial advice
  2. Lots of variety
  3. Step by step tutorials
  4. Fast

Recently my wife told me she wanted a video camera. Not just any camera mind you, a handheld portable one, the size of a cell phone in HDMI. She mentioned a brand so I checked it out.

By doing a bit of surfing I was able to find out that there was a better alternative, I was also able to find out what I could expect to pay here in NZ and overseas. But there was a dilemma. I knew the brand and style, but recently they had moved up a model.

Enter: YouTube

Simply by watching video reviews of the past and current model, I was able to determine which was best.

The beauty was that the “older” model was superior, and a visit to TradMe meant I picked up a brand spanking new video camera for almost half retail.

By spending a little time on Google and watching a couple of videos we ended up with a great camera and saved ourselves over $150. Not bad for half an hour’s research 😉