YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the internet, and its something that everyone knows about. Your grandparents, your baby sister, your parents, and even your dog know about YouTube. However, we all know that there are many websites out there that are much better than YouTube quality wise, but YouTube still is the place to be discovered. If you've created your own video, chances are that you'll upload the video to YouTube first; just to get more people to see it. We all know that YouTube is the best place to upload your videos, but is YouTube the best place to watch it?

I was wandering around thinking about the new Macbook Air when a website fell out of the sky and hit me on my head. It was iDesktop. From the name alone, you'd assume that iDesktop is a site where you have your own personal desktop, but its far from that. iDesktop is a site in which you can search for YouTube videos but also get the option to download the video. Most of the website needs Javascript enabled, so you'd better do that if you want to get anywhere.

Features:
iDesktop is quite simple to use. Just search for something you would search for on YouTube, and iDesktop will show you a list of queries that match your search. Hovering over an image will display the description. At the bottom of the screen, there will be a control which will adjust how many matches you display on one page. Here is a picture of a search result:

The buttons at the top will allow you to download, share, or add the video to your favorites. A great function is that not only can you download the video as a '.flv' you can also save it an AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, 3GP2, WMV, EXE or zipped EXE. When you click to start a video, the video will show up on the screen and begin playing. There is a little bit of lag, but it shouldn't be unbearable. You can also change the website theme by clicking the 'Theme' button on the top of the screen. I think the point of iDesktop was to provide a fun innovative and great looking way to browse and download YouTube videos. Another great feature is 'dim'. To enable this, just move to the top of the screen, and click the button that says 'show settings'. Click that, and enable 'dim'. With 'dim enabled, the background will turn a darker color when you play your videos, so you won't be distracted by all the images.

Problems:
I don't really have that many problems with this website. It works alright, and although there is a some lag, it isn't something I would complain about that much. There is only one thing that annoys me. I wish that the website would allow some sort of 'list' function. Instead of showing the video's as small rectangular blocks, they should allow the videos to be displayed the way YouTube displays them. I keep my zoom at 0% so I can see a lot of videos, but this is what the screen looks like when you have zoom at 0%. It hurts my eyes, and I'm sure you'd say the same thing.

Final Thoughts:
Other than that minor (or major, whichever you like) drawback, there isn't anything else to complain about. iDesktop makes downloading your YouTube video's a lot easier, and the design is quite innovative (although a bit too much for my poor eyes). This is a great site for anyone who wants to download all those great YouTube video. Whether you use it to watch videos or to download videos, the site is definitely something to try out. You might be surprised how much you like it.

via iDesktop.tv

Posted in Labels: Internet, Websites, YouTube Posted by Bookmark Geek at 6:46 PM