YouTube Thumbnails |
|
YouTube Thumbnails
The old way was to pull the thumbnails from the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 positions of your video. This is no longer the case. It all changed on December 3, 2008. In fact, the new way YouTube Thumbnails are made appears to be random but we think it is not.
|
YouTube Thumbnails Video - Click to watch
You can see some of the thumbnail research process
There is more... scroll down to see it.
|
|
YouTube Thumbnails Test (30 sec video) (check out our entire test process with additional test results at vseo-thumbnail-test.html) The YouTube Thumbnails test to the right was performed using a 30 second video (which YouTube calls 31 seconds). Additional tests were made using a video that was (approx.) one second shorter (28.29) and with another that was only one frame shorter (29.29) BUT none would give the full 3 thumbnail results we calculated unless it was EXACTLY 30.00 seconds in length. This pattern is most defiantly repeatable, so any video now (as of May-11-2009) that is exactly 30 seconds in length (recorded at 30fps) should yield the proper thumbnail positions recorded to the right. It appears to be random, since any variance from the exact length greatly changes the position of the thumbnail grabs made by YouTube. [ NOTE: We now understand that unless you want a timer running the entire length of the video, this technique will NOT work! We are working on this, and will update this page when/if we figure it out!] Notes: 1) The length shown to you by YouTube in their video length indicators are usually off by a second (this may contribute to the confusion on how to create accurate YouTube Thumbnails). Therefore we suggest you trust your video editing software to get an accurate read on when a video is a particular length (i.e. 30.00 seconds). 2) When our video length was off by 1 frame (29.29) we were able to capture the middle thumbnail position as noted above but the 1st & 3rd were taken from elsewhere in the clip. [this is not very repeatable] 3) Because of the slight variations on YouTube's Thumbnails during our tests we chose to use still shots to test our findings that were 5 frames in length. We positioned them to straddle the above noted range of positions and were successful at capturing all three still shots as the 3 YouTube Thumbnails. 4) Note the graphic above the video to the right, this shows what we see in our "My Videos" editing window on YouTube. Each Thumbnail is identified by a different number in the flame on the lower left. To show users in the YouTube community that we have actually been able to capture all three thumbnail positions, we will select a different position to be displayed from time to time. 5) These YouTube Thumbnails do NOT appear to be chosen by percentage of length of the video. It is no longer something that you can calculate by taking the length of a video and dividing by a certain number to get the thumbnail spots—in that sense they appear to be randomly generated. 6) It is quite possible that YouTube Thumbnail positions will be adjusted once they see we understand how to calculate the sampling positions, so this discovery may not last. But we can hope they will let us that are willing to work at it (our company can help you) continue to isolate relevant images into the thumbnail spots for our clients. What we put into the test video were stills, but you can also put in video. For our testing we used still shots to fill in the noted thumbnail positions, but there is no requirement for you to do that. Simply make sure the video content you desire to be used for thumbnail creation is positioned properly within the above identified time slots. |
All three YouTube Thumbnail choices are able to be anticipated and selected. The image below shows when the middle (or #2) thumbnail was selected from the MyVideos / Edit Video / "Video Thumbnail Pane".
We can Help you Get Great Thumbnails A service we offer is Thumbnail Consulting Services. If you have a video you want to get online and want to have the very best best Thumbnails representing your video to the world, let us know and we can help you make it happen. We would be happy to help you in choosing your thumbnail images for videos of any length (limit of 10:00:00 minutes set by YouTube) as part of what we offer in our Video SEO (VSEO) services. Our Thumbnail Service is guaranteed to yield the proper thumbnails. Just a reminder: another way to choose your YouTube Thumbnails is to become a YouTube Partner – then you are given a different interface for thumbnail selections. Since most of us are not eligible or chosen to be a partner, we get to work it out the hard way! |
|
If you find this information useful, we are glad we could help. If it only serves to complicate matters, let us help you make your online videos all they can be. We use video to drive traffic to your site. We offer VSEO (Video Search Engine Optimization) services for very reasonable fees. One á la cart service we offer is our Video Thumbnail Services. This Thumbnail Service will Guarantee Your Thumbnail Results, or your money back. Click here to learn about the Guarantee and the Video Thumbnail Services that provide you with at least 3 Video Hosting Site’s Thumbnail positions (Yahoo, MySpace, MotionBox, etc.)! An important point: we will not knowingly offer our services to those posting pornographic videos or |