Neat feature at Virb.com: Click the lightbulb at a video screen and the “lights” go off. The screen fades to black and leaves just a trace of the text that was there before.

lights on

lights off

The signup page also has a cool UI feature: Click the whole bar to select a radio button and and the form underneath changes to match that item.

signup

signup

While there’s lots of nice design stuff going on at Virb, the copywriting leaves a bit to be desired. Specifically: Good luck trying to figure out what the site does if you’re a newbie.

The intro copy at the home page, which changes randomly, doesn’t reveal much:

home

Finally, a site for people who like stuff! I like stuff, don’t you? Vague intro sentences followed by a plea to “Sign up today” are the online equivalent of a clumsy high schooler who moves in for a kiss too soon.

Well, surely the “Virb is” link at the top of the page will clear up the confusion. Not so much…

virb is

(You can keep digging but The FAQ page has no “What is it?” question and the About page only offers another generic description.)

I know minimal text is cool but more (or maybe just better) explanatory text here would really help grease the wheels. Mashable offers this succint summary:

In short, Virb is what MySpace would be like if it actually worked: a nice design, simple and intuitive navigation and just as much (perhaps even more) customization…There’s photo sharing too, of course, plus video-sharing, tagging, groups, comments, messaging and all the other standard features. Coming from the makers of PureVolume, there’s also a strong musical element: a download called Virbtunes works like MOG or Last.fm, tracking the music you listen to in iTunes and making recommendations. And just like on MySpace, bands also have special pages from which you can grab tracks to populate a player on your own profile.

Someone shouldn’t have to go to another site to figure this out though.