YouTube quietly added a new feature today to its popular user-generated video site today called Quick Capture, which allows users to record video directly to YouTube from webcams plugged into their computers. This new feature eliminates steps in the process of producing video content, making it easier than ever to publish videos to the web. The Quick Capture tool uses an Adobe Flash Player API to connect to the user's webcam. The user must first grant the Flash Player permission to use the camera and microphone—and must do so every time—before using the service. Once the user grants permission, he or she must then select the type of connection being used for the video and microphone: DV, FireWire, or USB.
After entering in the title, description, tags, and categories in the text boxes to the left, the user is all set to click the "Record" button. Videos are saved directly to the site, no encoding necessary. In fact, a user who wants to post videos to YouTube using the Quick Capture method doesn't need to have any software at all, aside from a working web browser. One thing that Quick Capture currently lacks is the ability to edit your videos once they're recorded, though, so editing-savvy users may still prefer to record videos on their own. What could this mean for YouTube? As if YouTube wasn't already big enough, it could become bigger. Based on anecdotal experience, many people I know who upload (or want to upload) videos to YouTube at least consider the recording and encoding process to require the most effort and be the most time-consuming steps. Quick Capture eliminates these steps altogether, allowing users to freely express themselves to the web without concerning themselves with video formats or codecs. Who knows—this could spur some more grandmas to showcase their talents on YouTube.
