The trouble with YouTube

YouTube is great. Any idiot can publish video in high quality with reliable streaming to an audience across the world. Chuffin' marvellous. But there's a frustrating problem for those wanting to make use of the videos...

Some would say this is a problem with the internet itself, and maybe that's so, but it's certainly a frustration with YouTube. The issue is related videos. You have no idea what you might be offered and whether it's in anyway appropriate to the audience.

Here's the example that's prompted this blog post

It's what comes up at the end of a video about the making of Disney's Paperman (worth watching btw). The top left video is a news story about android prostitutes. It's not really something appropriate to appear in front of a group of children interested in animation for example.

Separately there's an issue with adverts appearing. These can be annoying but are usually not inappropriate, although they can be amusing. I recall a pop up advert for Christian Dating appearing on a video being shown in church once.

It's for these reasons that I strongly advise against people showing YouTube clips in presentations whether they by in church, in a classroom or at a conference or even on your website.

For me the golden rule is that video in presentations should be downloaded and played locally. That takes away adverts and streaming issues.

If you want video online to embed in a website, I recommend Vimeo.com. Preferred by pretentious film maker types, it's a nicer website with better quality video than YouTube, but importantly you can buy a pro account which gives you far more control over how your videos appear, who can download them and what happens when they finish playing.