FIVE YEARS AGO, I blogged about ways to jump directly to a specific spot in a YouTube video.
Some of the syntax has changed but the fundamantals are the same (i.e., think hashtagging t=xmxxs). So to go directly to me discussing "Digger in a Hole" during a Sunday news segment that I recorded on my Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc (at left), just use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DLevhg6Wng#t=3m41s and you're in without any fuss. Or just click the screenshot in this blog post. The technique has been around for at least five years. The same code may also be used when you are embedding a YouTube video into your web pages. By adding the #t parameter to a YouTube video URL in the embed code, your viewers will enjoy a segment that buffers and plays from exactly that hashed point. This is an elegant way for people to skip intros and flat segments of a video. And if you produce "videos" that are actually movie clips made from audio files, you can bookmark and share via shortened links the exact segments when someone is talking about something very relevant to a topic.
Previously -- "Google Video Finds Frames" on my blog, July 21, 2006.
