[axod]

It's different though. Youtube makes possible what wasn't already possible - sharing video.

Sharing documents online has been solved for quite a long time now. It's easy (If slimy) to create a walled garden and coerce people into using it, but it'd be nicer to just show them how to share documents online.

Seems like the issue with Scribd is that it enhances the user experience for average user, but for techies/early adopters, it makes for a far worse experience than the alternative.

[marketer]

How would you explain to a non-technie writer (with no knowledge of HTML or web hosting) how to share their word or pdf files? Seems whatever solution you come up would probably be similar to Scribd.