YouTube Instant
Encyclopedia
YouTube Instant is a real-time search engine
built and launched in September 2010 by nineteen-year-old college student and Facebook
-software-engineer intern Feross Aboukhadijeh of Stanford University
that allows its users to search the YouTube
video database as they type. It follows on the heels of Google Instant, and has been described as a "novelty toy", a "prototypal digit to tie the “instant” bandwagon" as well as a "completely excellent way to waste 15 minutes".
Aboukhadijeh was offered a job from YouTube
CEO Chad Hurley
shortly after he created the site.
At the point of YouTube Instant's creation, Aboukhadijeh was a summer intern at Facebook
, and has said that he is working on a secret Facebook project.
’s Hacker News
feed, which is a news aggregation site that is similar to Digg
and Reddit
. It is modelled after Google Instant — as a user types in the video they are looking for, "the engine guesses the video and begins playing it immediately."
The project started off as a bet with his college roommate. Aboukhadijeh was quoted as saying, "It started out as a bet with my roommate, Jake Becker. I bet him I could build real-time YouTube search in less than an hour." Aboukhadijeh lost the bet, for it took him three hours to complete the site, and another couple hours to polish it. Aboukhadijeh said he found it "surprisingly easy to build".
Aboukhadijeh built the site by using the YouTube
API. He scraped YouTube
search suggestions because Google
blocked his server for making far too many repeated requests to the search suggestion endpoint. Aboukhadijeh had to re-write the site to instead query YouTube
directly for search suggestions, "eliminating the round-trip to [his] server", in order to address the problem.
front page consists of a box designed for a user to type in his search letter or phrase. As each letter of the search phrase is typed in, the server goes out into "YouTube video land" and tries to find matches for the search term.
YouTube Instant is essentially a free utility that strips down the normal YouTube interface to easily include a search bar, as well as a single and central video display as well as five smaller displays below it to present the top five searches based on the user's input. As the user types in text into the search bar, YouTube Instant instantly identifies a best match and, after a short pause to confirm that the user is happy with the match, plays the video in the central display. Beneath this, users are also presented with a smaller version of the file that is being played with a simple play and pause function as well as four other strong matches that the user can opt to select and play in the central panel instead.
YouTube Instant, as Aboukhadijeh said, would be most useful when one is "looking for a serendipitous video browsing experience". In comparison with Google Instant, it might not be as useful if "you know exactly what you’re looking for, since you’re shown distracting YouTube videos on the way to your destination", said Aboukhadijeh. He continues by saying that he thinks this is perfect for many internet users.”
YouTube Instant presents itself as a "streamlined, neatly presented microcosm" of the YouTube universe, which provides a simple and effective means of finding and playing a specific file. Like Google Instant, as soon as the user starts typing into the search bar, the utility looks for matches, and presents a file name to the right of the bar (in a distinctive and quite stylish script), which changes as you continue to type, predicting the best fit based on your input. It is virtually ‘instant’, as the name would suggest, and greatly reduces the time taken to find a file compared to the full version of YouTube.
. Both the name of the file and the user name of the individual that uploaded it are not shown to the user. Also, there are no account-based features either, so the user cannot, for example, log in to his existing YouTube account and add a file to his favorites.
such as the New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and Washington Post. Perhaps one of the puzzles of the buzz that YouTube Instant has created is how YouTube Instant went viral. "I think after things cool down a bit, I should carefully consider how exactly YouTube Instant went viral and write up a blog post to share my thoughts about it all," Aboukhadijeh has said.
via Twitter. "Want a Job?" Hurley asked, to which Aboukhadijeh, who uses the Twitter handle FreeTheFeross, replied, "Is that a for-real offer?" Hurley then asked if Aboukhadijeh was "ready to leave school." A meeting between Aboukhadijeh and Chad Hurley at YouTube's San Bruno, California, headquarters was scheduled for September 13, 2010. But the question about whether he would accept the YouTube job still remains an open one. Aboukhadijeh stated "I haven't actually accepted the YouTube offer yet. We're still figuring out how this is all going to work out, and nothing's final yet. However, Chad and the engineers I spoke with were excited about the possibilities." MediaMemo however claims that Aboukhadijeh "can't go work for Chad Hurley, because he’s already working for Mark Zuckerberg. Aboukhadijeh disagrees with this claim and by tells CNN that he doesn't see how working at Facebook over summer would "prohibit his taking a job at YouTube".
One of the best known spin-offs is ListAndPlay.com. It continues where YTinstant stops. The site is being featured as well on major news sites. It is developed by Jonathan Bouman, took five days to create and is powered by the JQuery javascript library
. It is the first site that enables users to create and share YouTube playlists instantly across social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The site uses the same instant search technology and runs entirely from the browser side to avoid any scalability problems. The short urls are being generated by using bit.ly
. Users report the site also works on the latest generation Android smartphones.
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
built and launched in September 2010 by nineteen-year-old college student and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
-software-engineer intern Feross Aboukhadijeh of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
that allows its users to search the YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video database as they type. It follows on the heels of Google Instant, and has been described as a "novelty toy", a "prototypal digit to tie the “instant” bandwagon" as well as a "completely excellent way to waste 15 minutes".
Aboukhadijeh was offered a job from YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
CEO Chad Hurley
Chad Hurley
Chad Meredith Hurley is an American co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the popular video sharing website YouTube. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "50 People Who Matter Now" list...
shortly after he created the site.
At the point of YouTube Instant's creation, Aboukhadijeh was a summer intern at Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, and has said that he is working on a secret Facebook project.
Origins
The launch of YouTube Instant was announced by Aboukhadijeh on Y CombinatorY Combinator
Y Combinator is an American seed-stage startup funding firm, started in March 2005. Y Combinator provides seed money, advice, and connections at two 3-month programs per year...
’s Hacker News
Hacker News
Hacker News is a social news website about computer hacking and startup companies, run by Paul Graham's funding firm Y Combinator. It is different from other social news websites in that there is no option to down vote submissions; submissions can either be voted up or not voted on at all...
feed, which is a news aggregation site that is similar to Digg
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
and Reddit
Reddit
reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.Reddit was originally...
. It is modelled after Google Instant — as a user types in the video they are looking for, "the engine guesses the video and begins playing it immediately."
The project started off as a bet with his college roommate. Aboukhadijeh was quoted as saying, "It started out as a bet with my roommate, Jake Becker. I bet him I could build real-time YouTube search in less than an hour." Aboukhadijeh lost the bet, for it took him three hours to complete the site, and another couple hours to polish it. Aboukhadijeh said he found it "surprisingly easy to build".
Aboukhadijeh built the site by using the YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
API. He scraped YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
search suggestions because Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
blocked his server for making far too many repeated requests to the search suggestion endpoint. Aboukhadijeh had to re-write the site to instead query YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
directly for search suggestions, "eliminating the round-trip to [his] server", in order to address the problem.
Description
The YouTube Instant interface, which looks similar to the YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
front page consists of a box designed for a user to type in his search letter or phrase. As each letter of the search phrase is typed in, the server goes out into "YouTube video land" and tries to find matches for the search term.
YouTube Instant is essentially a free utility that strips down the normal YouTube interface to easily include a search bar, as well as a single and central video display as well as five smaller displays below it to present the top five searches based on the user's input. As the user types in text into the search bar, YouTube Instant instantly identifies a best match and, after a short pause to confirm that the user is happy with the match, plays the video in the central display. Beneath this, users are also presented with a smaller version of the file that is being played with a simple play and pause function as well as four other strong matches that the user can opt to select and play in the central panel instead.
YouTube Instant, as Aboukhadijeh said, would be most useful when one is "looking for a serendipitous video browsing experience". In comparison with Google Instant, it might not be as useful if "you know exactly what you’re looking for, since you’re shown distracting YouTube videos on the way to your destination", said Aboukhadijeh. He continues by saying that he thinks this is perfect for many internet users.”
YouTube Instant presents itself as a "streamlined, neatly presented microcosm" of the YouTube universe, which provides a simple and effective means of finding and playing a specific file. Like Google Instant, as soon as the user starts typing into the search bar, the utility looks for matches, and presents a file name to the right of the bar (in a distinctive and quite stylish script), which changes as you continue to type, predicting the best fit based on your input. It is virtually ‘instant’, as the name would suggest, and greatly reduces the time taken to find a file compared to the full version of YouTube.
Limitations
YouTube Instant possesses very little of the functionality offered by YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. Both the name of the file and the user name of the individual that uploaded it are not shown to the user. Also, there are no account-based features either, so the user cannot, for example, log in to his existing YouTube account and add a file to his favorites.
Public response
Aboukhadijeh was quoted as saying "there was craziness," describing the response to the creation of YouTube Instant. And by "craziness," Aboukhadijeh referred to the viral whirlwind that was generated: he was greeted by e-mails congratulating him, interview requests, and a server flooded with Web traffic. Within six days, YouTube Instant had seen 715,000 visitors. There was news coverage by media outletssuch as the New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and Washington Post. Perhaps one of the puzzles of the buzz that YouTube Instant has created is how YouTube Instant went viral. "I think after things cool down a bit, I should carefully consider how exactly YouTube Instant went viral and write up a blog post to share my thoughts about it all," Aboukhadijeh has said.
Aboukhadijeh-Hurley Meeting
Most notable was the job offer from YouTube CEO Chad HurleyChad Hurley
Chad Meredith Hurley is an American co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the popular video sharing website YouTube. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "50 People Who Matter Now" list...
via Twitter. "Want a Job?" Hurley asked, to which Aboukhadijeh, who uses the Twitter handle FreeTheFeross, replied, "Is that a for-real offer?" Hurley then asked if Aboukhadijeh was "ready to leave school." A meeting between Aboukhadijeh and Chad Hurley at YouTube's San Bruno, California, headquarters was scheduled for September 13, 2010. But the question about whether he would accept the YouTube job still remains an open one. Aboukhadijeh stated "I haven't actually accepted the YouTube offer yet. We're still figuring out how this is all going to work out, and nothing's final yet. However, Chad and the engineers I spoke with were excited about the possibilities." MediaMemo however claims that Aboukhadijeh "can't go work for Chad Hurley, because he’s already working for Mark Zuckerberg. Aboukhadijeh disagrees with this claim and by tells CNN that he doesn't see how working at Facebook over summer would "prohibit his taking a job at YouTube".
Spin-offs
There was suddenly a rush to develop an ‘Instant’ version of every popular online brand. Shortly after the creation of YouTube Instant came the creation of Google Maps Instant, iTunes Instant, Instant Dictionary, Instant PubMed, OurUse.com, WikInstant.com,Instant Wikipedia (theinstantwiki.com). In particular, it was Michael Hart who put Google Images Instant together in less than two hours. He accompanied both apps with a notice that says: “Btw, Google: I’m looking for a job too! Congrats Feross Aboukhadijeh!”, a direct reference to YouTube Co-Founder and CEO Chad Hurley’s public job offer to the guy behind YouTube Instant. He has not received a tweet from Hurley yet. It was Scottish engineer Tam Denholm who decided to wrap another layer around the concept of "instantization" by creating a mashup of these mashups called "Instantise," "which slaps all instant-based Web activity onto a single landing page for easier discovery and use."One of the best known spin-offs is ListAndPlay.com. It continues where YTinstant stops. The site is being featured as well on major news sites. It is developed by Jonathan Bouman, took five days to create and is powered by the JQuery javascript library
JQuery
jQuery is a cross-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. It was released in January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resig...
. It is the first site that enables users to create and share YouTube playlists instantly across social networks like Twitter and Facebook. The site uses the same instant search technology and runs entirely from the browser side to avoid any scalability problems. The short urls are being generated by using bit.ly
URL shortening
URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to the required page. This is achieved by using an HTTP Redirect on a domain name that is short, which links to the web page that has a long URL...
. Users report the site also works on the latest generation Android smartphones.