Using the new annotation feature to overcome YouTube’s 10 minute limit.

• Speech Bubbles - Put written words into the mouth of your talent.
• Notes - Boxes of text used to explain the action.
• Spotlights - Highlight sections of your video that can link to other YouTube Videos.
  

Overlaying text descriptions onto your YouTube video

All three new features allow you to draw a white box anywhere or anytime on one of your YouTube videos, and to type text into that box. The only difference between the three features is the shape of the box. Notes are rectangular boxes, Speech Bubbles are boxes with arrows pointing to a spot on the screen, Spotlights are boxes associated with portion of your screen that you have highlighted. 

Most of what I have seen written about YouTube annotations focuses upon how they let you overlay text on top of your video. I find this least interesting part of the new annotation feature. The text overlays provided are always black text on a white box. Anybody using a video editor can already do a much better job.  Still being able to overlay text descriptions natively within YouTube is a plus. And you can do things with these overlays you can't do with pretty video edited titles - like let the user decide if they want to view an  annotation or not (a feature that still has some bugs.) Another problem is that overlays don't work with embedded players.  For the time being, you need to log into YouTube proper to view an annotation.

 Embedding links in your video overcomes lots of YouTube's limitations

What's is really exciting about the new annotation tools is that they allow you to embed links in one video that jump you to another YouTube video.  This feature provides an easy way to overcome the 10 minute limit currently imposed by YouTube.  Yes, I know that you have always been able to break longer video up into smaller chunks, but asking people to load each chunk separately is usually more trouble than it is worth. 

Using links properly can transform the YouTube experience! Have a 15 minute video to place on YouTube? Break it up into two 7 minute videos, providing an embedded link at the end of part one to jump you to part two. Or you can use lots of embed links to create a complex interactive multimedia presentations in which the audience gets to decide how a story is going to progress or what material they want to see next. Right now I am working on an interactive graduation ceremony for my daughter's school. The first five minute video holds the principles opening speech. In each corner of that speech I provide a link to different grades level presentations.  Click on the 8th grade link and you jump to the 8th grade skit.  In the four corners of this eight grade video I am providing links to presentations by the three class speakers and to actual diploma presentations.  Now grandma can see her darling get her diploma and play her violin without having to sit through all the on stage wiggling by the younger smaller kids.

The only big limitation is that all links have to point to other YouTube videos. My corporate clients would love clickable links that could take you to their company website, but for that capability you still have to use a service other than YouTube.

Creating text overlays and links is easy

Using the new annotation tool is simple, but if the presentation you are trying to create is complex it is going to take some time.  You start by uploading videos into your YouTube account. Once they are there, Log in, and view one of your videos. On the "Video Page", click the blue "Edit Annotations" button to the right of the video.

To create a link you pick one of the three annotations styles (Speech Bubble, Note or Spotlight). Use the mouse to drag the text box to the proper spot, grab the corner handles to size it, and then type in text defining the action.  If you have chosen Spotlight you will also be asked to draw a box around a part of the video image you want to highlight as a link.  You are given complete freedom to add as many annotations as you want to a single video as well as to specify when they start appearing and how long each annotation should stay on the screen.

The next step (if you want) is to create a link from the on-screen annotation to another YouTube video by typing in the proper URL into the provided dialog box.  To see the design process in action, as well as a demonstration of how a set of inter-linked videos in action check out this series of tutorial videos produced by Google.