Downloading videos from YouTube has long been possible via dedicated software but the option is now starting to appear on the site, with no external app required. Could this be the best thing to happen to YouTube in its lifetime?
An Evolving YouTube
YouTube seems to be evolving at an incredible pace these days. Not a week goes by when some new feature or high-profile partner is added to the site. So much is happening in fact that it’s sometimes hard to keep up with it all.
We’ve already seen a wealth of ways in which Google is trying to monetize the site more efficiently, and new media partners adding to the wealth of content available on the site. More recently, we’ve seen the new widescreen and high-definition options added to videos and an official teaming up with the Senate and House of Representatives.
Option To Download
Now, hot on the heels of the announcement that Google Video is getting canned, comes the news that some videos on YouTube now have a download option. At the moment this seems to be limited to political videos, including Obama’s new weekly addresses, but the option could be rolled out to include more content in the future.
Downloading videos from YouTube has been a possibility for a while now thanks to dedicated software allowing Flash rips or H.264 stream downloads. But this is the first time YouTube has offered the chance to download its videos directly from the site without the need for an external app.
Political Videos
Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig first noticed the new option to download videos directly from YouTube a couple of days ago. Barack Obama’s Weekly Addresses To The Nation are the first to gain the option but other political videos including some in the new House and Senate channels could follow soon.
Lessig states that he’s been promised the option will be offered more generally in the future while CNET received official word from YouTube’s Hunter Walk along the lines of: “Nothing further to announce at this time. We’re just excited to have made this feature available in preparation for a historic week in American politics.”
There are some obvious big hurdles or Google to overcome before the option to download videos turns up on more diverse content. How to deliver advertising on the downloaded clips and getting the very complicated licensing agreements worked out would be two huge ones.
Conclusions
Assuming these could both be figured out in time, this is an exciting development. It could mean that YouTube clips of your favorite music videos (assuming all the labels don’t pull out in the meantime) could become downloadable to your iPod or other mobile device.
YouTube is evolving into a much more user-friendly, diverse place with proper controls over copyright are in place. Now if only th comments system were overhauled to rid us of the incessant spam and over-the-top language. And can txt spk possibly be banned while we’re at it?
