Top 10 YouTube tips and tricks
According to Alexa,
YouTube is the third most visited page on the Internet which means you
have probably visited the page in the past. These tips and tricks help
make your experience more enjoyable and if possible, productive.
YouTube keyboard shortcuts
YouTube has several keyboard shortcuts that can be used while watching YouTube. Keyboard shortcuts like pressing the spacebar to play and pause or using the arrow keys to fast forward and rewind can make a big difference while on YouTube.
Share a video at any point
Not
everyone wants to watch a full video, link to the exact location you
found most entertaining instead of making your friends or family watch
the full video. To do this get to the location you want and pause the
video. Once paused right-click the video and select Get video URL at current time and then copy the link created.
Alternatively you can manually add the time by adding
"#t=XXmXXs" at the end of the URL, where XXm is the minutes, and XXs is
the seconds into the video you want to start. For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKVWBUwoV4o
would become
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKVWBUwoV4o#t=33s
to link to the video 33 seconds into the video. If you
wanted to link 4 minutes and 20 seconds into a video add #t4m20s to the
end of the URL. Alternatively you can use only seconds, so 4 * 60
(seconds in a minute) = 240 + 20 = 260 seconds for 4 minutes and 20
seconds into the video.
Find out what is popular on YouTube
YouTube can be a great place to find the most popular videos because of its popularity. Visit the Popular on YouTube
to find the most recent popular videos, recently released music videos,
top cute videos, latest trailers, events, and much more.
Add videos to Watch Later
Sometimes
you just do not have the time to watch a video or maybe you just do not
feel like watching an hour long video at this time. In the bottom right
corner of every video is a Watch Later button that will add the video
to your watch later list. Once you are ready to watch the video or if
you saved a video to share with someone else you can find the video in
your Watch Later Playlist.
Bonus Tip: Each of the thumbnails of videos on YouTube also shows the Watch Later icon when hovering over the thumbnail of the video.
Take advantage of search filters
YouTube usually does a great job giving you search
results but is not always perfect. Take full advantage of their search
filters by clicking the Filters button to get a list like that shown
below. In the filters list you can refine the searches to when the video
was uploaded, length of the video, view count, and features like HD (High definition) and 3D.
Watch live videos on YouTube
YouTube is not just pre-recorded uploaded videos they now also feature YouTube Live, which has live events, sports, news, gaming, music, education, and much more.
Take full advantage of YouTube tools
Not many people know that YouTube also has several helpful YouTube Tools
that can help extremely helpful when creating new content. For example,
the YouTube editor allows you to edit uploaded videos, create videos,
and adjust settings like the brightness and contrast, pan and zoom,
stabilize, slow motion, and rotation. Other tools include a Slideshow
creator, YouTube capture, Captions, Audio Library, and YouTube
Analytics.
Bypass regional restrictions and other blocks
Some videos may have restrictions that prevent them from
playing on a certain device, playing in a certain region, or other
restrictions that prevent you from playing the video. You can bypass
some of these restrictions by changing how the URL is entered into your
address bar.
For example, copy the id of the video (shown in red) in the URL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=dD40VXFkusw
Once the id of the video has been copied erase everything
after the .com/ and add "v/<id>" where id is what was copied
earlier. Once this is done your URL should resemble the example shown
below.
https://www.youtube.com/v/dD40VXFkusw
Loading this URL opens the video in a full screen, but
because of how it is loaded many of the restrictions YouTube may have on
the video are ignored.
Set the default video quality
Watch all videos at the highest quality by adjusting your
settings to use the best quality. To adjust your settings click on your
profile icon in the top-right corner of the window and click the
YouTube Gear settings icon as shown below. In the YouTube Account
Settings, select Playback and then select "Always choose the best quality for my connection and player size." If you have a slow Internet connection or YouTube videos frequently need to buffer, select the "I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video" option.
Alternative ways to watch YouTube
There are dozens of ways to watch YouTube today. Most Smart TVs
already have an app that allows you to watch YouTube videos on your TV
using your remote. For those who do not have Smart TV or have a Smart TV
but do not like the interface (it is not easy typing on a remote),
there are also other solutions.
Our current favorite method of watching YouTube on the TV is using the Google Chromecast. The Chromecast allows you or anyone else with a smartphone
or computer to stream YouTube videos to your TV with a click of a
button. The Chromecast is the easiest solution to stream videos to your
TV, and you can type on your phone or computer or use your voice to
search for videos instead of using your TV remote.
Other popular alternatives of watching YouTube
- Apple TV - The Apple TV is another great solution for watching YouTube and other content.
- Consoles - Consoles like Xbox, PlayStation 3, and Wii all have a YouTube player.
- Lean Back - YouTube Lean Back is a completely different way of watching YouTube videos and allows you to browse and watch videos on alternative devices.
- Roku - The Roku is another great device that connects to your TV to watch YouTube and other content.
- TiVo - The TiVo DVR is another fantastic method of watching YouTube, your shows, and other content.
