How annoying is it to watch an embedded YouTube video and try to pause it and accidentally click on the video screen and have your browser open up a new tab to the video on youtube.com? With the new YouTube player the video actually pauses when the screen is clicked instead of opening a new tab to the YouTube video.

There are other new features but that by far is the most important in my opinion. You want visitors staying at your site and not lead them to venture off. But don’t worry, the option to view the original video on YouTube is still there with the help of a handy button. We’ll get to that later.

How to Embed the New YouTube Player

Simply add

"&version=3"

to the end of the player’s URL parameters.

If you use the default iframe embed code simply add

"&version=3"

at the end of the iframe src value i.e. after "rel=0".

An example of the default YouTube video iframe embed code:

<iframe title="YouTube video player"
width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OPjmbks4gZA?rel=0"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

An example of the default YouTube video iframe embed code with

"&amp;version=3"

added in order to embed the new YouTube video player.

<iframe title="YouTube video player"
width="560" height="349"
src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OPjmbks4gZA?rel=0&amp;version=3"
frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>
</iframe>

Now if you prefer using the old embed code which uses the movie parameters instead of iframe, you will need to insert

"&amp;version=3"

twice. Once at the end of the movie param url and also at the end of the embed src url.

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="560" height="349"
 codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param
 name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src"
 value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPjmbks4gZA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" /><param name="allowfullscreen"
 value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349"
 src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPjmbks4gZA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" allowscriptaccess="always"
 allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

An example of the default YouTube video old embed code:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="560" height="349"
 codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param
 name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src"
 value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPjmbks4gZA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" /><param name="allowfullscreen"
 value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349"
 src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPjmbks4gZA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" allowscriptaccess="always"
 allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

An example of the default YouTube video old embed code with

"&amp;version=3"

added in order to embed the new YouTube video player.

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="560" height="349"
 codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param
 name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src"
 value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPjmbks4gZA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;version=3" /><param
 name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="349"
 src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OPjmbks4gZA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0&amp;version=3" allowscriptaccess="always"
 allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Here’s an example what the new player looks like:

New Features:

1. Clicking the Video Screen pauses the YouTube Video

As I mentioned earlier in the post if you try clicking on the video screen you can now pause the video (just as they have it on youtube.com) instead of opening a new tab for the original video on YouTube. As a web publisher you don’t want visitors at all costs leaving your site, so this feature is an important one to retain readers. On a side note, one thing that irritated me about the old embedded video is that when you clicked on the video screen not only does the new tab/window open for the video on youtube.com but it causes the current video your watching to pause and likewise the same video opened on youtube.com is automatically played in the beginning. A lot of wasted time if you ask me. So for the sake of web publishing and viewers, by all means this code is a must when embedding YouTube videos.

2. Watch Later Button

This feature allows visitors to add the embedded YouTube video to their playlist on their YouTube account. The visitor will have to be logged into their YouTube account for this feature to appear.

3. New Right Click Options

A couple of new options have been added such as “Copy Video URL”, “Copy Video URL at Current Time”, and “Copy Embed HTML” among others. These options may be a time saver in terms of getting the YouTube video code.

4. YouTube “Watch on YouTube” Logo Button

Pretty self-explanatory, this button opens up a new tab to watch the embedded video on YouTube.

Overall the new video player scores a high mark for me as a web publisher and YouTube viewer. How has your experiences been with the new YouTube Player?