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YouTube Gets Video Annotation
Posted by Adam Pash at 4:00 AM on June 5, 2008
Add interactive comments to your YouTube videos with the new annotation feature. To annotate to any video you've uploaded, just head to your uploaded videos page and click the Edit annotations button. From there you can add comment boxes, speech bubbles, and even links to other content. The catch during the beta test is that annotated video only appears on videos playing directly on YouTube and not embedded on other sites, but you can get an idea of the possibilities by checking out this annotated video. YouTube isn't the first to introduce this sort of functionality, but you can bet you'll see a lot more annotated video now that they have.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Adam Pash
Posted 4:38 AM 5/6/08
@gymtonic: Don't feel bad, I've been there.
Adam Pash
gymtonic
Posted 4:28 AM 5/6/08
stupid dumb me... i clicked the youtube player image thinking it was a video :(
gymtonic
wickedcupofjoe
Posted 5:19 AM 5/6/08
@Aibyouka-kun: ROFL - had to try it since I'm a fan. ::blushing::
wickedcupofjoe
Aibyouka-kun
Posted 5:11 AM 5/6/08
-*spoiler alert!*-
Even worse, if you visit the Youtube page, get it right the first time and click on it when it asks you to try a harder one.. well, its all Rick Roll'd from there.. lol.
Aibyouka-kun
scott johnson
Posted 5:55 AM 5/6/08
I had to force a refresh when I visited the example. The first time it played, the cached player didn't know about the annotations.
scott johnson
dorylomorphs
Posted 5:54 AM 5/6/08
@Woodsyx: I want them off by default. Actually clicking that on every video will be a major pain.
dorylomorphs
Woodsyx
Posted 5:47 AM 5/6/08
@dorylomorphs: Click on the up arrow in the bottom right of the video.
Woodsyx
tom2133
Posted 5:37 AM 5/6/08
Great...As is LOLcat photos weren't bad enough, soon we're going see LOLcat videos...
/bangs head against desk...
tom2133
dorylomorphs
Posted 5:33 AM 5/6/08
So how do I turn off viewing annotations my default? I cant stand this feature.
dorylomorphs
MJPByron
Posted 5:27 AM 5/6/08
Here comes the wwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
MJPByron
VakeroRokero
Posted 6:21 AM 5/6/08
That's too bad. If anyone ever reads the comments for the videos, it's mostly racist comments and idiots talking. That's the most mainstream part of the internet and of course, it's filled with ignorant people... just look at all those people fighting and beating random people just to get famous... on the internet, a place so infinite no one cares... You know what? we need another Deluge...
VakeroRokero
Pwnzord
Posted 7:15 AM 5/6/08
HOW COULD YOU *indirectly* RICK ROLL ME LIFEHACKER? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I TRUSTED YOU!
Pwnzord
Torley
Posted 10:35 AM 5/6/08
Video sites currently are sort of an odd bunch, with each having unique assets the others don't have. YouTube dominates the market, but its standard quality is mediocre and its "high-quality" takes a step back because their conversion process also distorts/clips audio badly. YT's customer support is also lacking and not knowledgeable of their own product, nor solid bug repros you send in. But, they do have custom playlists, which many vidsites don't have.
blip.tv and Vimeo have better image quality, but the former's show players are in a pixelfont which can't be changed (to my knowledge), and the latter only allows uploading 500 MB a week despite touting HD quality.
Flickr has an awesome comment culture, but it's still pictures first - vids can only be up to 90 secs - and altho vids have excellent visual quality, the audio is warbly.
This all means there's still room in the market to improve and compete!
And specifically in relation to the topic, I don't think this annotation was thought out/implemented well; it looks like a stripped-down version of Camtasia's callouts. I watched the example ball-in-cup video and the caption was missing a line at the bottom ("... find the ball inside the... "), not to mention I couldn't randomly seek within the video like I can with most other YouTube videos.
I'll also note YouTube has made their watermark a lot more intrusive, and their new embedded players (I noticed they changed over the last few days) actually look bulkier and hoggish than the old ones, removing rounded corners in front of right angles. I'm not a purist about that, but both changes make it less effective to watch embedded players at smaller sizes.
While I love shiny new innovations, I cringe at what else wasn't fixed/improved instead: such as, adding hovertips or scrolling titles to their players.
A simple change like that would've made a substantial, positive difference. :)
Torley
maccolar
Posted 8:55 PM 5/6/08
Nice, it make YouTube video more like Flash now, you can add comments or link to video, more and more spammer are coming :(
I found a guide about how to download youtube video to computer for free, share it here.
maccolar
RevWaldo
Posted 12:22 AM 6/6/08
If you're hating this new feature, it could be worse. There's a mad-popular video site in Japan (Nico Nico Douga) that allows viewers to slap comments right on the video, with all the creativity, chaos, and annoyance that implies. Check out an article on it here.
RevWaldo
Sunitkaul
Posted 7:21 AM 11/6/08
@Torley: I agree with you on most counts. Youtube is probably not the best there is right now, but it was the first. It's popular which simply translates to more videos and more variety. And many still dig it. Metacafe, I believe has the best of both worlds. A nicely-designed site, with acceptable quality and reasonable variety
Sunitkaul