Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Built-In Attribution

I spent a lot more time typing than I needed to when I began this blog. I used to carefully credit every video I used that I didn't make myself. YouTube at that time wanted themselves mentioned on any page that used a video from them, and I made sure I did that, too. Then I discovered that at the bottom of every video is the link marked "YouTube." That link takes you to the page on YouTube with that video, with the name of the YouTube channel, and an assortment of other videos by that entity. Click on the name, and it will take you to the YouTube channel of that person.

YouTube has you upload your videos in three different ways. You can make them public, and they can be found by searches, and are free to be embedded on other sites. If you have monetized your video this provides extra income to you via more views by blog and website readers.

You can make your videos unlisted. With this option, your video can't be found on YouTube by searching, but it can still be seen by others when it is posted on websites.  If you post it on a blog, others can click the little YouTube link and then get the embed code, and re-post it on other sites. It is not private!

You can also upload a video as Private, so only you and a designated few can see it. Private videos cannot be embedded on websites and blogs.

Sharing videos is good for the person who posted it, because we all like to see the numbers roll up on the counter. If it is monetized, so much the better!

So, that is why you will see me credit written posts I use, such as Ernie Pyle, and other authors, but not so much on YouTube videos.  The attribution is there already.

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