7 Smart Tricks to Make the Most of YouTube

YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine for a good reaon. From viewing all the latest viral videos to finding workout tutorials, from streaming Ted Talks to catching a glimpse of upcoming movie trailers – YouTube really pulls it all on a platter for us!

To get the most out of your YouTube experience, there are some special hacks that the smart viewers use, distinguishing them as true-blue YouTube viewers. Here’s a list of a few of them that you can try to make your YouTube viewing even more pleasurable:

1. Did you know that you can download ANY YouTube video onto your computer without using software? Yep, you heard it right. You can copy these as mp3 files and listen to them on your mobile device.
To download, replace https://www. from the URL address with PWN (case-insensitive), and hit enter. For example:
Say if the URL reads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKSZiZRrsI, and you want to download the video, it would look like this: pwnyoutube.com/watch?v=KeKSZiZRrsI

Bingo! Once you press enter, you will be redirected to a page where you can start the download. Here, under the video thumbnail, you will have link options you can click and open in a new tab to initiate the download.

2. For all you Star Wars fans out there, here is a neat trick to become a YouTube Jedi. Go to YouTube’s home page and in the search box, type ‘Use the force Luke,’ press enter, and behold the magic!
Pro-tip: Move your cursor around for additional fun.

3. Another sorcery trick: Type ‘Beam me up Scotty’ in YouTube’s search box and press enter.
*Warning: We are not responsible for people bowing to you for your mad YouTube skillz!

4. Time for some hot keys. Use the following keys to control a video instead of struggling with your mouse/touchpad:
J for rewinding 10 seconds
K for pausing the video
L for forwarding 10 seconds
M for muting the video

5. YouTube has an unsuspecting childish side to it. Don’t believe us? Type ‘doge meme,’ hit enter, and revel in the colorful joy of comic sans!

6. Here’s one for the GIF crazies. Type ‘GIF’ in between www. & youtube in the URL address of a particular video and press enter. You can convert the video into a 1-15 second long GIF image.
Example:
If the video URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yursVDCWSs, it should look like this: https://www.gifyoutube.com/watch?v=1yursVDCWSs

7. Suppose you want to watch a video from a portion that interests you, instead of viewing the whole thing. So if a 48-minute documentary is dragging, and you only want to watch it from 28 minutes and 30 seconds, just command the following wish to YouTube:
At the end of the URL address, type “#t=28m30s” and press enter. Example;
If the URL address is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo4Cl0WYNyM, it should look like this after the time is specified: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo4Cl0WYNyM#t=28m30s

Voila, the magic works! This is very handy when you want to share a YouTube URL with someone for them to view a specific sequence.