YouTube Adds New Deep Link Feature

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 30 Oct 2008

Deep Link means that you can take video linking one step further and link to a particular moment within that video. Here is how it all goes: let’s say that you like Ludacris’ “Get Back” video which saw a rise in popularity after the release of “Tropic Thunder”. Not only can you link to this video, you can also link to the moment something happens in the video.

The YouTube team prides itself with the fact that it will always pay attention to what the community has to say and then acting accordingly. What this means is that when YouTube users asked for a deep link feature, YouTube did not turn a deaf ear to their request – it did the exact opposite, it got its crack team of web developers working on the issue. It is this spirit (mixed with a few other extras) that makes YouTube such a big hit in the online community.

Let’s get technical and explain how one can deep link to a video. Using the “Get back” video mentioned above as an example, let’s say that you want to deep link to this specific time 1:03. All you have to do is attach “#t=1m03s” to the video’s URL. What you will end up with is this deep link.

There is one additional bonus: if you watch that deep link and you will make a video comment something like “hilarious 1:03 cracks me up”, that comment will become a hyperlink. Other people that want to see why 1:03 is so funny need just click that time and will be automatically directed to that particular moment in the media file. To my mind this seems like a cool new feature to play with and I only wish YouTube had implemented it sooner.


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