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YouTube Releases Updated APIs

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek Wed Mar 12, 2:45 PM ET

YouTube on Wednesday gave Web site owners the ability to more fully integrate YouTube videos and comments into their Web pages. ADVERTISEMENT

YouTube released a new set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to help programmers create applications that perform functions normally executed on YouTube.

"For users, the exciting news is that they will be able to actively participate in the YouTube community from just about anywhere, including the online destinations and Web communities they already love and visit regularly," said Jim Patterson, product manager at YouTube, in a blog post. "For partners and developers, YouTube has grown into much more than a Web site. It has become an open, general purpose, video services platform, available for use by just about any third-party Web site, desktop application, or consumer device."

The new APIs let third-party sites add the ability to upload videos and video responses to YouTube, alter user and video metadata such as titles, descriptions, ratings, and comments, get standard feeds like "Most Viewed," conduct queries with output localized for different countries, and customize the YouTube player's interface and playback.

YouTube has also updated its Java and PHP client libraries, developer guides, and terms of service.

Having access to YouTube's innards allows companies to create value-added services using YouTube as a platform. Animoto, for example, has developed a menu-driven video creation site that lets users create YouTube videos from its site using digital photographs. Electronic Arts' upcoming video game Spore, meanwhile, will include the ability to create videos from game play and to upload them from the game to YouTube.

By turning YouTube into what amounts to a white-label video sharing service, Google stands to win over more third-party sites interested in developing video services under their own brands. That in turn should broaden the audience for YouTube videos and increase Google's video advertising revenue.

Along similar lines, TiVo said on Wednesday that broadband-connected users of the company's Series 3 DVRs will be able to access YouTube videos directly through their TVs later this year. The company said YouTube users will be able to sign into their YouTube accounts through their TiVo boxes and access their favorite YouTube channels and playlists.

See original article on InformationWeek.com