New Features
YouTubeKeep.com has just added two new formats – High-Quality FLV and Full-HD 1080p support. Currently, there are not that many Full-HD videos available and the performance of play back is not great on most computers. But, if you download the video and play in VLC, you are likely to have much smoother playback.
If you want to try it out, try this Full-HD video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XITHbsUUlYI
As a note, the old high-quality (iPod compatible) is now Medium Quality and the old HD is HD 720p, just in case you were confused…
We have many exciting features in testing, so keep an eye on the blog and newsletter.
Additional Urls
We had several people requesting support for the URL’s below, so we just added it.
Here are some examples of the additional URL’s supported:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=realannoyingorange&annotation_id=annotation_819665&feature=iv#p/a/u/0/cL_qGMfbtAk
http://www.youtube.com/hpheaven#p/a/u/2/OjTE-18-b_A
http://www.youtube.com/user/downstairsguys#p/u/2/O2n1Zgmtqe4
Firefox Add On
We have just released a new version of our Firefox add on. This is a minor update and does not include bug fixes or anything major.
Now added is support for additional YouTube video URL’s.
Another new version of the Firefox Add on has been released.
This version just includes a minor bug fix where, sometimes, flashing would increase each time you went to a new video on YouTube.
To download and see the version history, see this page:
Firefox Add On – Powered by YouTubeKeep.com
Cheers,
Cash
A few days ago, I read a news article, talking about YouTube’s latest idea to boost revenue. Their idea is to allow YouTube partners to offer their video for download, for free or for a fee (choice of the partner). They are currently testing the plan with selected partners. I think it is a step in the right direction. More information at: The Washington Post
Decrease piracy?
With the success of iTunes Store, I think YouTube’s plan has the potential for get users what they want cheaper, quicker and LEGALLY. If the big TV networks and movies producers are willing to jump on board, it could seriously help to decrease piracy.
I have no problem paying for a video (if the price is reasonable). At the moment, when you buy a DVD, most of the money you’re paying, goes to the retailer and to the distributor. So I’m all for cutting out the middle-men! I’m not saying I pirate TV episodes or movies at the moment, but I do have a friend who does.
The bad news for me
Because YouTube wants people to PAY for downloads of certain videos, they seem to be cracking down on websites allowing users to download YouTube videos.
Unfortunately, YouTubeKeep falls into this category.
Well it was nice knowing you! 
That’s right, people are finding my awesome tool (just in case you forgot, that’s YouTubeKeep.com) and using it. Woo!
I am promoting it quite a bit, by posting articles and links wherever I can, (which I’ll cover tomorrow). It is still not doing that well in the search results. If you enter something odd like “youtube keep video” or “youtube keep“, it shows up on the first page of Google. But ultimately, I want it to be on the first page for the keyphrase “download youtube videos“.
I think the search engines are probably punishing me because I have lots of broken links now. I changed the page structure of the website a few times and google indexed the old URL’s which now go to 404 error pages. Oh well, the search engines will get over it… eventually!
So, the hits… You want exact figures? Well, I’m not giving you exact figures! But I’m looking at between 50-100 visits per day (not to be confused with hits / page views). I know it’s not THAT impressive, but it’s a start!
The ad revenue is still next to nothing. If you’ve been to YouTubeKeep.com in Internet Explorer, you’ll probably notice that the ads do weird things and jump down to the bottom. So I’m going to blame the positioning. I’ll fix that and experiment with the positioning over the next few weeks.
When I originally put YouTubeKeep.com together (well back then, it was TubeKeep.net), I never intended to launch it looking the way it did. The layout was just so I could test the script. But the design got delayed and delayed, so the website stayed looking the way it did for WAY TOO LONG!
I think the new design makes it much easier to use. The ads blend in a lot less, which makes it look a lot cleaner.
That’s about all.
Check it out and let me know what you think!