Podcasting Power Tools

Do you want to email someone a link to a video, but don’t want them to have to watch the first 5 minutes.  You can edit the link to make the video start at a certain point.

Here is the URL of a YouTube video:

Here is the HTML we will add to the end:

#t=5m08s

The code above would start the video 5 minutes and 8 seconds in.  The “m” is for minutes and the “s” is for seconds.  If you want the video to start less than a minute into it, put a zero before the “m” and the appropriate amount of seconds before the “s”. 

To begin a video 30 seconds into it, use the following code:

#t=0m30s

After you edit the code, add it to the end of the original YouTube URL:

Here is the link.  Check it out!

You want to embed a video in your podcast show notes, but you don’t want to make viewers watch everything that leads up to the clip that makes your point.  You can set your embedded YouTube video to begin playing at a given time.

You see this video on YouTube and you decide to embed it:

Click the embed button:

Copy the embed code:

Paste it in your text editor and you should have:

How far into the video do you want it to start playing? 

Calculate how many seconds that is.  Less than a minute is easy, but if you want to start 2:10 into the video, that would be 130 seconds (2 minutes x 60 seconds + 10 seconds = 130 seconds) 

In the following code, replace “SECONDS” with the number you just calculated:

&start=SECONDS

the example would be “&start=130”

Now you get to edit the embed code.  Add the above code to the end of each URL in the embed code

The embed code should now look like this:(but with your seconds value)

(First change is highlighted and the second one is under the pointer.)

Now, use this code to embed the video.  It looks the same as any other embed, but when you press play, the video will skip to the point that you selected.  Try it below:

Google reader is my information office and I don’t enjoy leaving it just to check YouTube for new videos.  I created a folder in Google Reader for YouTube channel feeds and generated the feeds using the following URL:

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/*/uploads

Replace the “*” with the YouTube channel name.

In the following example:

The channel name is the highlighted portion:

And the feed would be:

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/FrontEndAudio/uploads

In Google Reader, click the “Add a Subscription” button:

And paste in the feed URL you just generated and click “Add”:

You should see the following:

Be aware that the feed does not embed the videos but just provides video information with a link to the YouTube page:

Congratulations, you have subscribed to a YouTube in Google Reader.  Now you can follow all your favorite YouTube producers from the comfort of Google Reader.