Today's web is all about open social networking. Even then, some information should ideally remain out of bounds from the public gaze. Most photos and videos are actually private memories and some of us may balk at sharing it with the World Wide Web.

Ryan first addressed the issue in his detailed look at the Top 4 Sites to Share Private Home Movies with Family & Friends. The post looked at the more obvious YouTube and its less intuitive interface; and then the three other online services to share videos.

But video hosting websites which let you have a say on who gets to view the shared videos are sprouting up.

The choice of the right private video sharing website will ultimately boil down to the file size allowed and the ease of sharing with the right kind of privacy features.

So try out the five below and let us in your preference (or none) to share videos with your friends and family.

Gabble

Gabble is a beta web service from Hewlett Packard which allows you to safely and securely share private videos. Notice the encrypted connection (HTTPS) in your address bar. All you need to get started is an Internet connection, a web browser and a video camera such as a webcam or mobile phone.

Gabble allows you to record and upload your videos for sharing. You also get a unique email address for your account which can be used to send videos directly from your mobile phone. Videos posted via email are limited to 10MB in size. Gabble allows you to create and join groups for exchanging videos.

[NO LONGER WORKS] VidMe

VidMe is another online video sharing site which places all privacy controls in your hands. Videos can be uploaded or recorded directly using a webcam. Videos uploaded on VidMe can only be sent to the recipients you want to. The videos cannot be downloaded by the recipients or forwarded to anyone else. If recipients want to share the videos with anyone else, they have to "˜suggest an additional recipient' and get your approval.

VidMe even has an iPhone app for uploading and sharing videos directly from your iPhone. Recipients are notified with an email and they get a little snapshot of the video in the email. To watch the complete video, the recipient will have to sign-in to VidMe.

Also catch our [NO LONGER WORKS] previous mention of VidMe.

Video Sprout

Video Sprout is as simple as it gets in sharing private videos. Simply upload your video, and share access to it with the people whom you email. The videos can be shared via the unique URLs too. The online video sharing web service allows 100MB of storage and 500 monthly views. It's a nice solution for sharing those little video clips.

Also catch our previous mention of Video Sprout.

Viddler

Viddler is a free video sharing service which comes with three privacy controls. By default all videos uploaded are set to private (only you can see it). With the shared setting, the people you select will be able to view it. And thirdly, videos can be made public too and is viewable by others. Viddler is free for personal use.

What's good about Viddler is that right now the size limit per video is 500MB  (2GB monthly limit) and you can upload as many videos as you want. After an upload, Viddler encodes the files. The free account is ad-supported. If you don't mind that, you can set it up with friends to mutually share videos.

Mejuba [No Longer Available]

Mejuba gives you "˜unmetered' traffic and unlimited storage or your photos and videos. And the website if completely free to boot. Mejuba allows photo and video uploads from the computer, mobile, and iPhone. Upload size is limited to 1GB per upload and that's more than enough for a lot of things.

The useful thing (apart from its unlimited USP) is that you can upload entire folders and the folder arrangement gets retained online. Folders are called Albums on Mejuba and can be accessed via the Explorer like interface. Mejuba allows you to create public and private albums. Private albums can be viewed by invitation only. You can share your album with specific contacts and/or your Mejuba contacts.

How do you share your private videos? Let us know the site of your choice.

Image Credit: sunside