You just know the world has gone video mad when dogs get their own YouTube. More specifically, WorldWide Fido, which launched this weekend, is an online video dog show in which owners (or dogs that can work computers) upload clips in various categories, add photos and accept comments and votes. Of course, the dogs have their own profile pages, although there's no external embedding of clips or the ability to submit them to social news sites (must...avoid...Dogg.com...pun). Puns and metaphors abound, naturally - you vote by giving the dog a bone, the winners are the "Top Dogs" and so on. Video is powered by Vidavee.
Surprisingly, Worldwide Fido already has a competitor: Dogster has a video section powered by VideoEgg. It's also not the first video site to focus on online contests: Bix.com, Singshot and Jumpcut have all tried this model in various ways. YouTube is perhaps the most prolific launcher of contests, however, beginning with YouTube Underground, and followed by the YouTube NBA contest, the McDonalds Contest, the Southwest contest and many more.
It all comes down to a simple fact: people love their pets. And obsessive dog owners make for obsessive social networkers. Clearly, the next billion dollar idea involves going beyond the saturated human networking market, and focusing instead on our furry friends, who are coming online in greater and greater numbers (at least according to ComScore).