YouTube Releases New Tools For Video Sharing
As it now stands, users can embed YouTube videos on their own Websites or blogs, but only by pasting a particular embed code found on the YouTube site. By releasing the player's Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs), Google will give users the ability to make fully customizable title bar, browser buttons or status bars -- in essence, a video platform for the entire Internet that individual users can brand to their liking.
Developers can also let users rate videos or add them to a favorites list embedded on the site and to upload videos straight to YouTube from mobile phones, Patterson wrote. Viewers can then visit the site and post comments without having to go to the mother YouTube site. Previously, users had to read and post comments on YouTube's site.
As part of the API offering developers can also customize and control Adobe Systems' Flash video playing software, Reuters reports. The ability to add or edit user and video metadata like titles, descriptions and ratings, and to fetch localized standard feeds, like most viewed or top rated videos, for 18 international locales are among the other features Patterson outlined on the post. "The number of possible new applications is endless," he wrote. "We can't wait to see what you create."