Graspr to join the instructional-video site fray

Yet another company launching at this week's DemoFall 2007 conference is Graspr, a video-based social network for instructional content that's both professionally- and user-generated. Categories on the site will include topics as disparate as gardening, sports, crafts, and cooking.

Created by a handful of former Yahoo vice presidents, including Teresa Phillips, who serves as the new company's founder and CEO, Graspr will open to a public beta on Tuesday.

Suffice it to say that this is not a particularly open niche of the Web. eHow and Instructables currently dominate the "instructional encyclopedia" niche, and since Graspr has not yet launched, it's unclear as to just how similar or different it will be. The main innovation appears to be the Graspr Editor, an in-broswer video editor that will allow users to drag-and-drop their way to instructional video nirvana. A release from the new site has said that upon its launch on Tuesday, it will already be aggregating over 10,000 videos from across the Web.

It also seems that Graspr is aiming for more robust social media features that will allow its users to promote themselves and build followings, perhaps using the service as a supplement to an existing presence on the Web. The company has also said that revenue- and ad-sharing programs are in development.