Youtube implements "Audio Preview"

[gzero]

As if the RMS and Cory Doctorow things weren't enough, Youtube now has a (AFAIK undocumented) feature, which I thought could use a thread of it's own outside of the one for the comic. Every 5 videos or so when clicking "Post a Text Comment" at any Youtube video this button shows up:

Spoiler:

The button does what you would expect - reads your comment back to you. It also has turned out that the way Youtube requests and provides the audio data is very simple:

http://www.youtube.com/preview_comment?q=TEXT STRING HERE&a=&s=&l=

You get back an MP3 file - any media player should play it fine! Now we all can ask the question:
http://www.youtube.com/preview_comment?q=How%20is%20babby%20formed&a=&s=&l=

Edit 8/10: Here's some of the links from the rest of the Internets, starting to take notice.
Youtube Community Help Forums: http://help.youtube.com/group/youtube-issues/browse_thread/thread/153d560d121e0677
Yahoo Answers: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081006215031AAjpUVD
Digg: http://digg.com/programming/YouTube_nods_to_XKCD_by_providing_Comment_Audio_Preview
sorethumb at Livejournal points out some interesting things in the JavaScript, like the fact that we're all basement-dwellers and that the sex/age of the preview voice apparently can be changed: http://sorethumb.livejournal.com/832663.html

I've seen no confirmation from Youtube/Google (yet) that they were inspired by xkcd, but would seem likely, wouldn't it? Also, it seems that the Audio Preview button now shows up for every comment!

[Jack Saladin]

... Doesn't work for me. >.>

Edit: Oh, that link you posted doesn't work but actually doing it through YouTube does.

Edit II: YouTube works occasionally. I have to click the button three or four times (waiting for it to load each time), before it plays the sound.

Uhh, does this feature not like Firefox or something?

Also, lol. So, is this a crazy coincidence or is it actually drawn from the comic? I mean, I knew Randall has fans in Google but sheesh...

[gzero]

... Doesn't work for me. >.>

Edit: Oh, that link you posted doesn't work but actually doing it through YouTube does.

Edit II: YouTube works occasionally. Well, I've got it to actually go once. Other times I click the button and nothing happens.

Uhh, does this feature not like Firefox or something?

Hmm, I'm not sure. I use Firefox and the button in Youtube's interface has worked every time for me, but the direct link for some reason fails sometimes, despite the exact same HTTP request. Try a single word, that seems to always work for me.

[Jack Saladin]

Huh, that does work every time with just the one word. Odd.

Have I been missing out on the leaps and bounds in text-to-voice synthesising technology over the past few years, or is this really good quality compared to what these sort of things are usually like? Beats the hell out of the Windows one, at least.

[gzero]

Huh, that does work every time with just the one word. Odd.

Have I been missing out on the leaps and bounds in text-to-voice synthesising technology over the past few years, or is this really good quality compared to what these sort of things are usually like? Beats the hell out of the Windows one, at least.

I wrote a simple script for doing this on Linux and compared to the text to speech daemon that I use Youtube's software seems to speak quite a bit more naturally (i.e. it's less obvious that you're listening to a synthesized voice), but to my ear they're pretty close in terms of pronunciation and such.

Edit: For freck's sake, can't spell today.

[GCM]

Ahh! Didn't work for me. Just became unclickable then clickable again. But then, I'm on Internet Explorerz.

There should be a T-shirt, too. Don't know what, but definitely.

[Jack Saladin]

Ahh! Didn't work for me. Just became unclickable then clickable again. But then, I'm on Internet Explorerz.

Just keep clicking it and it plays eventually. That's what I was talking about.

[GCM]

Ahh! Didn't work for me. Just became unclickable then clickable again. But then, I'm on Internet Explorerz.

Just keep clicking it and it plays eventually. That's what I was talking about.

Well, I did so about 5 times. Was that enough for you?

Regardless, I'm surprised that this topic isn't more popular than it is.

[Green9090]

Reality imitates xkcd again!

[Qoppa]

Holy shit, it actually works. Hah

[Gelsamel]

Works perfectly fine for me.

[Shedek]

There seems to be a limit on the length it will continue to play. Seems to cut off around the one hundred and fifty character marker.

[Gelsamel]

There seems to be a limit on the length it will continue to play. Seems to cut off around the one hundred and fifty character marker.

It's limit is probably based on syllables since they're all roughly the same length.

[anouk]

Also, lol. So, is this a crazy coincidence or is it actually drawn from the comic? I mean, I knew Randall has fans in Google but sheesh...

was wondering that too

works every time for me, i have ffox... this is fun!

[Joeldi]

Is it more than trivial to treat commas and full stops as pauses? It's irking me that it doesn't, and I can't imagine it being more than a few lines of code to just treat those characters as silence rather than syllable

[Waldo]

Is it more than trivial to treat commas and full stops as pauses? It's irking me that it doesn't, and I can't imagine it being more than a few lines of code to just treat those characters as silence rather than syllable

It treats question marks just as weirdly. It just sort of adds a little hiccup to the end of the sentence.

Of course, the seemingly millions of commenters who are apparently unaware that their keyboard even has punctuation keys won't care either way.

[gzero]

It seems the Audio Preview button now is there every comment, not just every 5th or so. Maybe yesterday was a small(er)-scale test, with the additional advantage of making people slightly worried about their mental health when they first saw a button that spoke to them once and then was gone - in other words, a way of slowing the news of the features and thus the load on the systems?

Anecdotal evidence supporting the "makes-you-insane" hypothesis:

holy crap holy crap holy crap IT'S THERE!!!!!

EDIT: wait...its gone. hmmm

:shock: Holy crap.

I think YouTube itself has done it.

I just posted a comment to a video, and there was a button that said "Audio Preview." And it worked. It was gone when I reloaded the page, though.

But if I didn't hallucinate that...man, I knew xkcd had power, but that might be a new record.

[NEWK]

When that comic came up last week, I thought it was so funny I put it as my desktop background because I've seen way too many morons with opinions post crap on youtube comments. A few minutes ago, I tried to post a comment myself and I paused for a few seconds when I noticed the "audio preview" button. Are they for real? Did someone really make a virus? "WTF" doesn't even begin to describe the way I felt...

[schmiggen]

It's not a virus, just a built-in feature of the website, now.

[pseudoidiot]

As much fun as a synthesized voice can be, I don't see the point. Granted I never read comments on Youtube anyway to spare my sanity, so maybe I'm missing something?

[mdnn]

The first time I saw this, I was overjoyed. As an avid reader of XKCD, I immedietly made the connection. This is probably the best thing to ever happen to youtube. now the only thing we need to see happen is for it to not be optional, and the systen to just read your comment back to you automaticly... but only after you click post!!

[Vivek]

I tried typing the whole english alphabet into the comment box and playing it back.



It was awesome.

[ellipsis]

For those of you who are using Flashblock in Firefox, you might want to allow youtube.com for this to work.

[Guest]

What's the point of it? If anything it will fuel stupid comments because people find it funny when the computer says retarded things.

[Kaiyas]

I tried typing the whole english alphabet into the comment box and playing it back.



It was awesome.

It sounds like German. However, hearing roflololmao is funnier, albeit slightly less awesome.

[anouk]

lol, when i type the alphabet, it says west instead of w and south instead of s. i didn't catch any others.

[pyroman]

Ha I had ignored this topic for a while as i figured it was just an audio only version of the video for people with slow connections. Now that i realize what it actually is i find it hilarious. Of course i had to test it by typing in hello world (i mean come on how else do you test something for the first time?) Its kind of scary just how powerful xkcd has become.

[pseudoidiot]

It's kind of scary awesome just how powerful xkcd has become.

[Jebobek]

What's the point of it? If anything it will fuel stupid comments because people find it funny when the computer says retarded things.

To use Randall's blag, some people might get it, though...

[Cheshire Smile]

Ha I had ignored this topic for a while as i figured it was just an audio only version of the video for people with slow connections.

I figured it was the same thing, but for people on youtube in a public place, just in case the video turned out to be non-publicplace/workplace-safe...

Which I thought would be awesome for playing music without having to watch the music video, but... wow. The fact that this came out not so long after the XKCD comic is just frickin' amazing... go Randall.

[zahlman]

It also has turned out that the way Youtube requests and provides the audio data is very simple:

http://www.youtube.com/preview_comment?q={whatever}&a=&s=&l=

I see what they did there.

[Qoppa]

What's the point of it? If anything it will fuel stupid comments because people find it funny when the computer says retarded things.

To use Randall's blag, some people might get it, though...

I wouldn't call that 'getting it' at all. The point is that when you realize your post sounds moronic you don't click the "Post Comment" button.

[RealGrouchy]

For every person who posts that kind of comment on YouTube, imagine how many people don't post their comments--all thanks to the audio preview!

Incidentally, Slashdot is also following in xkcd's tracks by giving me mod points.

- RG>

[Cryopyre]

awesome, XKCD strikes the netz again.

[jaydoubleyou]

The Telegraph has an article about this as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3173494/YouTube-play-back-feature-to-humiliate-inane-commenters.html

heres the reddit comments for this article, too:
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/76dsd/youtube_have_discovered_a_great_way_of/

[RealGrouchy]

The Telegraph has an article about this as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3173494/YouTube-play-back-feature-to-humiliate-inane-commenters.html

Wow, what an embarrasingly unresearched article!

Also, the image isn't properly referenced, IMO. The comic is reproduced in full, but the link to it is in the text of the article, not in the image caption or attributes.

- RG>

[likeem]

I LOL'd, I came here, I discovered I'd forgotten my username.

Geeks of the world, rejoice!

Also: audio preview should really, really be worked into all forum-engines out there. There's a clear and.. somethingsomething demand for that feature!

*triplesmiley*

[GCM]

What's the point of it? If anything it will fuel stupid comments because people find it funny when the computer says retarded things.

Doubt it. If people were stupid enough to want to hear the computer read it for more than 15 minutes ever, they'd just open Control Panel>Speech.

Then again, this is the internet....

On a second note, it's also fun to ctrlcctrlv other people's comments. Try it! Morgan Freeman!

[KTC]

The Telegraph has an article about this as well.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3173494/YouTube-play-back-feature-to-humiliate-inane-commenters.html

Wow, what an embarrasingly unresearched article!

Also, the image isn't properly referenced, IMO. The comic is reproduced in full, but the link to it is in the text of the article, not in the image caption or attributes.

- RG>

Um, all that is needed (asked for) is attribution, which is often, but not necessary, a link to the original comic, which is exactly what the article did...... The link is in the text, which goes with the picture in that article... And who to say a seperate license wasn't granted for all you know?

[RealGrouchy]

stuff

Touché.

As for the feature, it's a bit lacking. I tried the text "I am testing audio preview. Let us see how it works," and what came out was "I a.m. testing audio preview. Let U.S. see how it works."

It's like any word that could possibly be an acronym is spelled out! Though, to its credit, it did properly pronounce the last word of "My mother is an uncle."

- RG>