YouTube has been around for almost a decade now, and it continues to be one of the most visited websites on the internet. It’s constantly evolving, adding new features that improve the world’s online viewing experience–did you know that you can now watch YouTube videos in 3D? Have you tried linking to the best moment of a video?
Read on–here are 8 hacks, tricks, and instructions on how to make the most of your YouTube experience.
First things first — you should login to your YouTube account. This will give you the best experience, and let you comment, upload, and use most of the tricks below. If you have a Gmail or other Google account, you can just log in under that username/email address. Otherwise sign up or a new account. It will only take a few minutes, and you’ll be watching videos in no time. By logging in, you’ll be able to quickly access any YouTube content from anywhere, whether it be on your laptop at home or on your phone while you’re out in town.
Want to put together a video mixtape of funny commercials to play in the background of your house party? How about a long stream of this season’s fashion shows to sit back and watch? Create a New Playlist by clicking the “Add +” button under any video and then use the same button under other videos to start adding them to the list. In the playlists menu you can change the order of the videos or kick out the ones that don’t make the final cut. Once you’ve got it all sorted out, hit “Play All” and the videos will play back to back until the end. Playlists can be shared or kept private.
You can easily pass on fun videos to your Facebook and Twitter friends, but why not set it up to automatically share what you like on YouTube? To turn on Autoshare, go to the “Activate Sharing” section of the “Account” page and start linking to your accounts on other sites.
Let’s say you want to show your friends an especially impressive triple-axel jump in Asada Mao’s ice-skating routine that happens at exactly 3:42. While you’re watching, hit the “Share” button at the bottom of the video, click on “Options” under the URL, and click on “Start at _” and enter 3:42. Then when you copy the URL above and send it to your friend, it will jump start right at 3:42 instead of at the very beginning.
It’s easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past. But did you know you can watch tons of content that is happening right now? Simply go to Youtube Live and you’ll be able to find the most compelling live events happening on YouTube across different categories such as Gaming, Sports, and more. You can even add these events straight to your calendar. One more tip: Subscribe to your favorite YouTube live-streaming partners to be notified of upcoming live streams on your customized homepage.
You’ve found an interview with Lady Gaga but it’s in English — and you have no idea what she’s saying. Just click on Auto Captions by hitting the CC button at the bottom of the video player and select ‘Transcribe Audio’ to generate Auto Captions in your language. Then translate those captions into by selecting Translate Captions from the menu.
Sick of two dimensions? YouTube has the largest online repository of 3D video on the planet which can be found see www.youtube.com/3d. Click on the 3D icon under the video to adjust the 3D type to fit your particular glasses (such as red-blue or interleaved). You can also upload 3D videos from 3D enabled cameras, camcorders, phones and gadgets.
Ever shoot a video on your mobile phone portrait-style and then been frustrated that you can’t rotate it to landscape on YouTube? Do it easily and fix the color while you’re at it in YouTube’s cloud-based editor You can also give videos a Lomo or sepia tone, combine and mash-up videos, and even add pre-cleared music to your video.
