1Finance

Embedding a video into a web page used to be a real challenge in the early days of the web. You had different formats to chose from, other visitors might not have the proper software installed to see the video, and bandwidth was still limited, as many people were still on dialup. Fast forward to 2011. Most people now have broadband, and although there are still many video formats, the most commonly used method to embed video today is via the Flash player and an .flv file which is provided via an external host, such as YouTube.



Now, embedding a video onto a web page becomes as easy as cutting and pasting. When you visit a site that hosts videos, such as YouTube, you are presented with a video box on the page. You can watch the video directly on the page, or the Flash player allows you to view the video full screen, just by clicking a button on the player. How much does it cost you to add a video from YouTube to your site? Nada--nothing. They provide the service, and they also provide the bandwidth, so the video is hosted on their servers and uses their bandwidth! Hard to beat a deal like that!

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