Flash video has spawned a wealth of popular new user-generated content sites, with YouTube and Google Video being at the forefront. Squidoo launched the new YouTube modules about three weeks ago, and they have to be the most exciting new plugin I have seen to date. They can’t make you money directly but add a wonderful sense of fun and potential from a content standpoint - and lenses with great content stand the best chance of pulling in revenue.

To show you how easy it is to add a YouTube video to a blog site, I’ve plugged in a Squidoo eyetracking usability study below. Adding such a watchable interface to a Squidoo lens is even easier! Just press play:

You can go to the YouTube site yourself and manually select URLs to then paste into Squidoo, or you can search through the module which is much quicker. The videos will play right on the live version of your lens, with no reloading of pages or pop-ups. As many of my lenses are pop culture related, I have found tons of appropriate videos to embed. Depending on your subject matter, you may not find anything all that relevant. But fear not - You can easily upload your own clips and then display them on your lens via the module. Get creative and see what you can come up with.

For a few ideas and practical examples, have a look at these lenses: Beta Band, Blade Runner, John Belushi, Dave Chappelle and Blazing Saddles. Music videos, TV and film clips, commercials, home movies, instructional videos - they’re all fair game. Please feel free to comment and tell us how you’ve used this awesome new module!

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 18th, 2006 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Content, YouTube Modules. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.