Help
YouTube makes it simple to embed and link to videos. That's a big part of its success as both a destination and a platform. But what if you want to link to a specific point in a video?
Turns out, that's easy too. This tip has been around for years, but I rarely see it used. That's odd since it's such a useful technique, especially when a nugget of video gold is buried deep in a clip.
So here are the simple steps for linking to a particular moment in a YouTube video:
1. Go to the video's YouTube page.
This is the example I'm using.
2. Play the video and then pause it at the spot you want to link to.
You can also use the scrubber tool to jump ahead or back.
3. Take note of the timestamp.
In my example, I want to link to the video beginning at the 1:46 mark.
4. Go to the URL bar and copy the video's link to your computer's clipboard.
5. Open a text editor and paste the URL into a document.
It should look something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zv-Uvo_Kq8
6. At the very end of the URL, insert this bit of code:
#t=
After the = sign, insert the timestamp you noted previously. It should be in this format:
1m46s
As you probably guessed, m = minute and s = seconds.
7. The complete URL should look something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zv-Uvo_Kq8#t=1m46s
8. You can now insert that full link into any HREF.
Upon clicking, the user will go to the video's YouTube page and the clip will begin playing at the specific minute/second you designated. For example, click on this link and the video playhead will automatically play from the 1:46 mark.
The caveats
-- I've never been able to jump to a specific point within an embedded YouTube clip. This technique only applies to videos you view on YouTube.com.
-- There's no way to stop a clip from playing. I couldn't, for example, instruct the browser to only play from 1:46 to 2:10.
-- The timestamp link doesn't apply to YouTube's experimental HTML5/h.264 videos. Those clips always play from the beginning.
