YouTube Desktop makes browsing for videos faster
Posted on: August 17, 2007I use YouTube a lot, and I've been playing with the new YouTube Desktop web app after I heard about it from last100. I signed up for their private beta — you can too if you act fast (doesn't that sound like an infomercial, ha!). Here's what it looks like:
After I sent my initial "YES PLEASE" email, the YouTube Desktop team replied quickly with login instructions. I appreciate this.
I recommend registering for an account, because it offers additional features like "Last 20 played" and "Playlists". I wish it could read from my existing YouTube playlists, or add favorites.
You can download videos in a wide variety of formats, but there's some trickiness: the section in the lower left functions like Apple's OS X Dock, with videos magnifying as you mouse over them. (If you look carefully, it even has reflections like Coverflow.) This is a bit fiddly to get used to, and when you're trying to download, you need to either click on a tiny video badge or right-click on the thumbnail preview. I also wish there was a clearer visual indicator that a video's ready for download, before you mouse over it.
I initially thought I had to register for an account to download videos and I recall seeing a popup limiting my number of downloads, but I can't find it now.
Overall, YouTube Desktop feels very slick. The team is unabashedly Web 2.0, as they mention in their About section, but they don't mention whether they've received Google's blessing to do this (and use their name in the process, too).
One thing I really like about this is that you don't have to see all the cluttered crap that YouTube throws your way. I'm a big fan of YT, but they have an awful comment moderation system (e.g., marking something as spam doesn't delete it, you have to manually erase it too — how wasteful!), and as a result, most of the comments do a great disservice to the human race, lest these videos be beamed to alien civilizations. YouTube Desktop also hides video descriptions by default — it's very visual, and browsing screens of thumbnails is a snap. There's even a zoom slider in the lower right to view more or less at a time.
I wish I could resize videos and retain the aspect ratio, because it's too easy to stretch something out and get the proportions wrong.
A flaw not specific to YouTube Desktop, which affects original YouTube too, is that when viewing a video in full-screen, you can't use it on a dual-monitor config because clicking outside the monitor playing the vid will shrink it back down. This would be great to fix.
Another oddity is when I try to drag a video in the browser, a hover tip comes up saying "Drag…", but I can't seem to actually do anything with it.
I really like how I can watch a video in a window while continuing to browse in the background. It feels a lot more integrated than having to open multiple browser tabs to view and browse simultaneously.
A promising start — let's see how it pans out in the long run! I don't exaggerate when I say Google should have some of these features on their official site. Maybe an acquisition isn't out of the possibility?
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Be my friend!
August 18th, 2007 at 7:11 AM PDT
Hmm, I just posted this comment, but had some links to Laetizia's blog in it with words I could've expected your spam filter would activate! I'm just too used to, and hoping for, true freedom in this world, I forgot that. So without further ado, here's my original comment, with the links filtered out:
Oh, that looks good, thanks for the tip!
Yes, the Mark as spam buttons on YouTube are quite useless. Refresh the page and the comment is back in all its spammy glory. Then YouTube denies us genuine users (
) posting URLs in comments (even the video poster can't!) in an attempt to stop the spam, but it's clearly not working.
Which goes to show, if you don't mind me saying, that blocking words like "casino" from SL event listings doesn't stop gambling either, it just makes it invisible.
Anyway, back on topic, I applied for a Beta Login. I'll let you know if I encounter a download limit.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:19 AM PDT
I find Akismet has been working unsatisfactorily for me, I still get obvious spam that makes it through every week. If you need me to manually check the mod queue if a legit comment was hidden away, feel free to let me know.
And yes, having a blocked words list doesn't prevent the activities themselves, but is a deterrent to most. I was thinking that creatively, some meme-pushing souls might come out with alternate words for "casino" and popularize them, but those could be just as easily word-blocked.
Thanks!
August 20th, 2007 at 5:47 PM PDT
Oh, my comment had some words generally associated with illegal activities (though not necessarily always true, there's a perfectly legal Nabokov book with the same name) and that word was linked to an external website (in this case, Laetizia's blog), so I understand why it was blocked.
), for e-mail only though, don't think it can be implemented easily in the comments system.
When I didn't have my Mac yet, I used a Bayesian spam filter on my e-mail, that worked terribly well (even those mails using an image only were blocked successfully). That filter is POPFile (open source!
I just started using YouTube Desktop today. I didn't get any popups on download limits. Then again, I only attempted one download (which appeared to work, I didn't finish the download as I didn't need it).
I found a few things in it I was having some issues with, but this is a Beta of course, so hopefully they're working on it. I just wish they had a JIRA, especially for Beta software, I'd think they'd need an open channel to the users.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:57 PM PDT
hi, can someone invite me please?
id be really grateful. thank you.
reply to naledimusic@hotmail.co.uk
August 25th, 2007 at 12:46 PM PDT
Just click the "Join the Beta" button, you should get login info in a few days (so it worked for me, at least).
August 26th, 2007 at 8:16 AM PDT
Best of hope with it. :o)
Yeah, and I have no idea why there are betas which make it difficult to report feedback… isn't that the whole point of beta testing?