The [youtube(.)com] link is the actual website that you watch the video on which can have a crap load of extra stuff like playlist info, highlighted comment info, where you came from, and probably more. The links can get really long, like 100+ characters.
The [youtu(.)be] link is a redirect website who’s only purpose is to reduce the size of the link to just the watch ID and timestamp. It dumps even the query language to keep the links under 30 characters or so.
Such link shorteners (such as bit(.)ly or tinyurl) were popular when Twitter was getting big and the character limit was an SMS message length; 140 characters. youtu(.)be in particular helped avoid bait and switch scams (as you can tell it’s definitely a video instead of going in blind) and it has the watch ID so titles, thumbnails, and embeds still work.
TIL, thanks.
Although now I wonder what the difference and purpose is of having these two formats:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WjABILVAz5Y https://youtu.be/WjABILVAz5Y
I guess it’s a little shorter but the regular link isn’t long by any means.
The [youtube(.)com] link is the actual website that you watch the video on which can have a crap load of extra stuff like playlist info, highlighted comment info, where you came from, and probably more. The links can get really long, like 100+ characters.
The [youtu(.)be] link is a redirect website who’s only purpose is to reduce the size of the link to just the watch ID and timestamp. It dumps even the query language to keep the links under 30 characters or so.
Such link shorteners (such as bit(.)ly or tinyurl) were popular when Twitter was getting big and the character limit was an SMS message length; 140 characters. youtu(.)be in particular helped avoid bait and switch scams (as you can tell it’s definitely a video instead of going in blind) and it has the watch ID so titles, thumbnails, and embeds still work.
Thanks for taking the time to explain it so thoroughly. It’s appreciated!
I think the second format also allows for specifying the timestamp, so you can link to a certain point in the video
First one can do that too
Ah nvm then, idk either
deleted by creator
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=WjABILVAz5Y
https://piped.video/WjABILVAz5Y
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.