YouTube's Embedded Player Has Been Updated

Friday, March 14, 2008

YouTube's Embedded Player Has Been Updated

YouTube removed the overlayed logo from its embedded player and added the branding to the small menu button, similar to Google Video.

The old player:

The new player:

I'm not sure if this is a new feature, but YouTube's embedded player supports keyboard shortcuts. Once the player has focus, you can press:

* space to pause the video and then resume it

* the right arrow to fast forward

* the left arrow to replay the video

* the up/down arrows to adjust volume.

Labels: YouTube

17 comments ( Post a comment )

Philipp Lenssen said on March 14, 2008 6:15 AM PDT:

Would be neat if you include a before/ after screenshot...

Charlie said on March 14, 2008 6:19 AM PDT:

I can't understand why their embedded players don't have a fullscreen option. To go full screen, you have to hit the lower-right button, copy the url to the clipboard, paste it into your browser to go to the youtube page, and then finally hit the fullscreen button there.

Ionut Alex Chitu said on March 14, 2008 6:58 AM PDT:

@Philipp:
Good idea. I updated the post.

Ionut Alex Chitu said on March 14, 2008 7:12 AM PDT:

I know a simpler way to get a pseudo-fullscreen player.

[1] Click on the YouTube button
[2] Copy to clipboard
[3] Paste in the address bar
[4] Replace "watch?v=" with "/v/".
[5] Press enter.

GTStaff said on March 14, 2008 8:05 AM PDT:

It's great that the players now have keyboard shortcuts! When you're tired, sleepy, or just plain lazy, it would be easier to watch videos this way. Hurray for YouTube's innovations!

cgull said on March 14, 2008 8:59 AM PDT:

These shortcuts are awesome, I think that is more news than the Embedded option. Great job.

eLd0raDo said on March 14, 2008 9:06 AM PDT:

the missing watermark logo could point to some alliance where youtube videos are played in a standalone player -- without youtube branding.

probably the new api supports some pay-as-you-use payment model so they are opening things up a little bit more with this.

cgull said on March 14, 2008 9:17 AM PDT:

This post has been removed by the author.

cgull said on March 14, 2008 9:19 AM PDT:

This one works only here, it doesn't work in Youtube. The shortcuts doesn't work in Youtube and the brand name doesn't show up.

muertecaramelo said on March 14, 2008 9:42 AM PDT:

Problem is in Google Reader; once the player is selected the GReader shortcuts seem to conflict with the new Youtube ones, and not work anymore even if you deselect the video.

For me is just depressing, I cannot watch anything from the reader anymore, I have to pop it up.

=(

Andrex said on March 14, 2008 11:43 AM PDT:

I'm still having problems with the video actually playing. It seems whenever I get the "three screens" button, I can't get the player to do anything.

http://i25.tinypic.com/2dr8ak7.png

I use Opera, by the way. It's weird, because about half the videos load while half don't. Very disheartening.

Ephilei said on March 14, 2008 12:34 PM PDT:

The spacebar shortcut, at least, is new. I've been waiting for that for a while!

Dread Knight said on March 14, 2008 5:49 PM PDT:

I can see the overlayed watermark in the video you posted... so like now there are 2 brands one next to each other xD

mikecane2008 said on March 15, 2008 2:04 PM PDT:

Yeah, what the other commenter said: I see the logo on the button *and* on-screen right above it, unlike your second screensnap.

I was wondering, does this have any effect on videos that were previously embedded in sites?

Here's a vid I embedded two days ago and it has the two logos:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/iphoneipod-touch-games-what-i-meant/

Ionut Alex Chitu said on March 15, 2008 2:56 PM PDT:

That's strange. I no longer see the redesigned button and the overlay is back.

PVK said on March 17, 2008 2:22 PM PDT:

This post has been removed by the author.

immersion08 said on April 9, 2008 2:06 PM PDT:

What happened? Did YT change their minds? I really hate that logo overlay as it gets in the way of my own watermark. Thats why I was using Google video. I really wish they'd change back to the logo on the control bar instead.

Any new info on this???

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YouTube's Embedded Player Has Been Updated