Intriguing Interfaces: How to share private videos on YouTube

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13 July 2008

Although they label it as “beta”, YouTube has done some re-working of their video management interfaces in quite an intriguing manner. With their interface changes, the Help Center Page is a little out of date. The comment mechanism on their blog doesn’t work (note all the double comments—mine didn’t even show up). I thought I’d post here instead.

You can share your private video by following the steps below:

  1. Sign into your account.
  2. Enter the “My Videos” section. There are three ways to do this:
    • Click the “My Videos” link in the “Account” dropdown at the top of the page.
    • Click the “Account” link at the top of the page, then click the “Uploaded Videos” link in the “My Videos” section.
    • Click the “Account” link at the top of the page, then click the “Videos, Favorites & Playlists” link in the “My Account” dropdown.
  3. Click the edit button next to the video you would like to share.
  4. In the address bar of your Web browser, change the the text my_videos_edit2 in the URL to my_videos_edit.
  5. Under “Broadcast Options”, click “choose options”
  6. Click the “Private” radio button “+” next to the label that contains the user you want to share with. If you do not have a Label set up, do the following:
    1. Click the “edit contacts” link.
    2. Click “New Label” either under the “Label” drop down or the “New” drop down.
    3. Enter a name for the list, then click “Create”
    4. Click on “All Contacts”
    5. Click the name of your contact.
    6. Click “Edit”
    7. Check the check box next to the label to which you want to add the friend.
    8. Click the “Save Changes”
  7. Click the “Update Video Info” button.

And there it is: eight (or fifteen) simple steps to sharing a private video on YouTube.

This entry was posted 13 July 2008 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

4 Responses to “Intriguing Interfaces: How to share private videos on YouTube”

  1. Marcel van den Bos said,

    Thanks for the entry … I concur with your comments that YouTube’s help information doesn’t reflect the changes applied to the sharing etc.

    Alas … I had hoped your instructions would solve my issue but it was not so. I’ve sent an email to YouTube but no answer to the issue.

    I just get no contacts being displayed nor the labels. I’ve kept things simple and have 2 contacts added to the “Family” label which also have accepted my friend request.

    But blow me down … when I go to the “Broadcasting and Sharing Options” when I select the radio button option for “Private (Viewable by up to 25 people)” nothing happens; no list; no contacts.

    This is so frustrating … and I’m an IT dude myself … so heaven help just ordinary folks trying to do this task.

    Everytime I go to YouTube … it just feels so “non-intuitive”.

    I guess from the research I’ve done so far … the private option thing hasn’t been such huge success.

    Any other suggestions to try would be appreciated.

    Cheers Marcel

  2. Marcel van den Bos pointed out,

    Additional comment.

    Doubled checked the URL and noticed that “my_videos_edit2″ was changed to “my_videos_edit”. I corrected this and got the page redisplayed.

    This time the video edit page was displayed in the original format. Under “Broadcast Options” it correctly shows the comment “Privacy options have been set” and a hyperlink to the right “choose options”. When this is selected it now displays my labels and when expanded the individual contacts.

    All is good. Appreciate your resolution comments. One Q. remains … how’d you figure to change my_videos_edit2 to my_videos_edit? :-)

  3. Ryan pointed out,

    @Marcel: The only way I figured out how about the URL change is from a comment on the aforelinked blog page. It seemed vital enough that I wanted to harness the Google beast to help others make the find as well.

  4. hgoon insisted,

    I followed your steps but it does not work as when i got to edit contact, i select the check box of a name and there is no button for me to select save changes or what. furthermore, how to go to the my_videos_edit page from contact page?