The Web Video scene is fairly young, but its popularity has inspired the creation of numerous Video Clip Sharing sites. Two of the biggest players are YouTube and MySpace. One of the smaller players, Grouper.com, has sought to make its presence known by reinventing itself.

Grouper has re-branded itself as www.Crackle.com, but the name isn’t the only thing that has changed. Crackle.com is on a mission to find and showcase the latest Internet Video talent, and is offering some great incentives to those who participate.

Rather than featuring everything from home videos to TV shows, Crackle.com focuses on content produced specifically for Internet Video. There’s animation, music, all manner of comedy, and more.

Crackle.com has contests in which users may participate to win awesome prizes. They include chances to pitch ideas to Hollywood studios and appear onstage in comedy clubs.

The idea of seeking out talent in Internet Video is a new concept in Clip Sharing. It will be interesting to see how far Crackle.com goes with it.

Crackle is backed by Sony so it definitely has some big guns behind it. Currently though the internet is packed with amateur content on sites like YouTube, or pirate content on Pirate directories like PeekVid.

This leaves Crackle in the middle of things as a legitimate source of professional content fighting against the free for all user generated content and the masses of pirate TV shows and movies.