4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net

YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the internet, allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download them.

So if you are a YouTube fan and would love to download some of the videos to your computer so that you may watch them again, without the need to visit the site again, then here are 4 quick ways to do that.

1. Add a ‘ Kiss ‘

Yes, you heard me right :) You just need to add the word ‘kiss’ to the YouTube video URL and then it directs you to a website where you can download it as a .flv video or convert it other formats as well.

Let’s take the most viewed video of all time - ‘ Evolution Of Dance ‘.

Its URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Now in order to download it, just replace it with this - http://www.kissyoutube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg . Then when you press enter, you’re directed to the website where you can download it. (see the screenshot)

kiss-youtube

2. YouTubeLoader Firefox Plugin

The youtubeloader firefox plugin is a Greasemonkey script, which adds a Download MP4 link below the YouTube video (as seen in Firefox 3)

youtube-loader

Now, after you click on that Download MP4 link, it takes you to a separate page where it gives you more download options. From there, you can finally download it in the desired format.

youtube-loader2

3. YouTube Catcher

YouTube Catcher allows you to copy paste the YouTube video link and then download it. It also offers an FLV player to watch the videos on the PC.

youtubecatcher

4. Tube Leecher

Tube Leecher is a very simple, no-frills YouTube videos download site, which allows you to download the videos in flv format through the YouTube video link. It’s probably the simplest of all the tools mentioned.

tubeleecher

I’m sure there are many more such tools available. If you know about any other tool which you think is better than the above, then mention them in the comments!

Abhijeet Mukherjee is addicted to the internet and loves blogging and freelance writing. He blogs about tech tweaks, blogging tips, productivity hacks at Jeet Blog

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  • 82 Comments » Leave One...

    Comment by carlgc
    2008-06-27 15:02:38

    http://www.vixy.net

    the only downside is that it adds a balck screen with the leyend vixy at the end of the video. but u can choose to download avi, mp4, mp3, 3gp

    2008-06-28 15:28:46

    ahhh..you didn’t include us!

    VidiiMonkey http://www.vidimonkey.uni.cc lets you enter a whole list of videos (one per a line) and lets you save videos in bulk. You enter a huge list, and we’ll get the link to each and present it to you so you can download a whole bunch.

    You can do a whole bunch all at once, rather then putting them in one at a time. We support several hosts, but we still are working on it to fix a few and support more.

     
    Comment by henry
    2008-07-05 22:00:22

    But I am now using Apowersoft YouTube Downloader which was recommend by james..
    I would like to recommend it too.
    Because you can download High Quality FLV videos from YouTube.
    Then You can crop and trim YouTube video, choose the output format as anything you want.,like MP4, AVI, MP3, AAC, VOB………
    Beside, There is a Built-in Media Player + FLV Converter + Video Converter

    That’s what I want to say.
    Enjoy your YouTube videos. and thanks for this nice article~

    Comment by Rolf Gockel
    2008-07-15 02:25:50

    Ok, but, we need something free, and with free we mean if is software, we need a crack or a hack or a serial number included

    (Comments wont nest below this level)
     
     
     
    Comment by Sounf Of Vision
    2008-06-27 15:11:34

    I use http://www.vixy.net too. Just, sometimes gets overloaded, so you must try several times…And I like that it has option for more formats.

     
    Comment by Jimmy Rogers
    2008-06-27 16:13:33

    Nice list Abhijeet! I like the Kiss one.

     
    Comment by Andrew
    2008-06-27 17:26:21

    i saw this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUxfXa0EruI) which gives a bookmarklet that you just click on while watching a video, and then a link appears on the youtube page and it downloads it in .mp4

     
    Comment by emilia
    2008-06-27 18:41:55

    I prefer tubezoid.com .. easy to use and supports alot of video services… youtubecatcher seems not bad too

     
    Comment by Dan
    2008-06-27 19:56:02

    1-There are lots of ways to “RE-DOWNLOAD” clips from Youtube etc, after you have watched them.
    2-There are even freeware applications that will do it.
    3-What woulld be more usefull is an app that will can easily copy it from the TEMPORARY files to PERMANENT STORAGE.

     
    2008-06-27 21:54:29

    [...] 信息来源:请猛击 [...]

     
    Comment by James
    2008-06-27 22:22:14

    Download and Convert YouTube Videos , You need a Powerful YouTube Downloader:
    Which can make settings when you decided to convert it to other video formats.

    Comment by henry
    2008-07-05 21:53:00

    Yea, that’s true,
    Thank you so much.

    really help me a lot~

    .
    .
    .
    .
    ..
    .

     
     
    Comment by Atul
    2008-06-27 23:57:20

    I use this site http://www.keepvid.com. It can download from various popular video sites and it gives you 2 options viz. a low-res flv version or an high res mp4.

     
    Comment by nostalgia
    2008-06-28 06:51:01

    I’ve been using YouTube Download & Convert by CubedLabs: http://www.cubedlabs.com/youtube_downloadconvert.php
    I don’t know how it compares in speed to the others, as I haven’t tried them out (yet), but I thought this was worth a mention as well. =) It’s really easy to use and does exactly what it says.

     
    Comment by Jeffry Thurana
    2008-06-28 09:54:48

    Definitely not faster, but I think this method is far more powerful. Not only for YouTube but (almost) all multimedia files; even from inside membership sites that open in new window - which usually uncatchable.

    (Shameless self promotion :))

     
    2008-06-28 11:05:39

    [...] allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download them.read more | digg [...]

     
    Comment by Kevin
    2008-06-28 13:37:57

    I like to use a Firefox Add-on called Video DownloadHelper ( http://www.downloadhelper.net/ ). It’s good for downloading any media file that’s on a flash player.

     
    Comment by Declan
    2008-06-28 14:12:25

    I use Zamzar.

     
    Comment by monkey
    2008-06-28 19:25:10

    Safari has an Window -> Activity menu item built right in.

    Look for FLV (or WMV, or MOV, whatever) files under there.

    No plugin or third party site need apply.

    Woot! Go Apple.

    Comment by gittenlucky
    2008-06-28 20:05:03

    Safari is the way to go!

    Another win for Apple.

     
     
    Comment by Em
    2008-06-28 19:33:35

    http://keepvid.com !

    Lets you choose between High Quality download or streaming file. I’ve tried a lot of downloaders and this one is the best for me.

    It offers downloads for other sites as well.

     
    Comment by Mark
    2008-06-28 19:43:50

    Check this out… watch YouTube videos on any cell phone, uronimo.com

     
    Comment by Frank Fulchiero
    Comment by Rolf Gockel
    2008-07-15 02:05:10

    yes but, there is one thing you’re all missing here, most of the youtube videos can be watched in high quality in a .flv file, some of the videos have bellow a direct link to watch it in a high quality version, even higher than .mp4, http://www.keepvid.com allows you to download it in .flv high quality but only if the video has that option active, this means that bellow the video you’re watching appears as it follows: “watch in high quality”, if it don’t then you could download only on mp4 or .flv regular quality

    flv in high quality is a heavy file, like for example a video that I download it first was in .flv regular size 8 mb, in mp4 like 11 mb, but in flv high quality was like 26.5 mb and the quality looks amazing. but again, I most remind you all, only if the option is active bellow the video, if you don’t see the direct link, you will not be able to download it in high quality even if you use the high quality code that is &fmt=18.

     
     
    Comment by vst
    2008-06-28 19:57:35

    #monkey - I wouldn’t spend 800 quid just for safari - it’s not argument.

    Thanks for that list - now I understand all. Is there any online tool that enable to download them movies as a *.mov or any “non flash” format ?

    Cheers.

     
    Comment by Torley Lives
    2008-06-28 20:32:14

    There are many ways to do this — many variations on the same theme. One of the easiest and most elegant, monkey’s Safari mention notwithstanding, is the Firefox DownloadHelper add-on:

    » https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

    Quicker than the refresh-and-wait of many Web forms. And if you need conversion from FLV, there’s the slick, visually-driven http://idesktop.tv

    Both come highly recommended from me.

     
    Comment by SXN
    2008-06-28 20:47:00

    Or you can use the best FF plugin out there
    http://www.downloadhelper.net/

    Works on any Video site, Flash, Images and more. Try it out.

     
    2008-06-28 20:54:09

    [...] 4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net This entry was written by admin and posted on June 29, 2008 at 9:52 am and filed under URL. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « Quote by Rocky Balboa [...]

     
    Comment by SINSIO
    2008-06-28 21:09:00

    I use keepvid and Zamzar for my video downloads. Keepvid has three video versions that it makes available for most vids: low and high quality flv files, and a mp4 version. Zamzar also has an option to download flv and mp4, but you can download the videos in many other versions such as MP3 (for audio only) and avi.

     
    Comment by teachernz
    2008-06-28 21:21:16

    Downloadhelper addin for firefox. It’s quick and regularly updated.

     
    Comment by Wayne
    2008-06-28 21:55:46

    To get the video file, I use youtube-dl (http://www.arrakis.es/~rggi3/youtube-dl/) which is a Python script. As for conversion, I use ffmpeg.
    Both are command line programs, just so you know :P

     
    Comment by nighthunter
    2008-06-28 22:35:02

    I like to use Orbit Downloader. It adds a small transparent icon above the video windows. Just click it and it let’s you download the FLV file. Plus it’s got a secondary sniffing program, much like Safari’s activity menu, called Grab++ if for some reason you have trouble getting the file the regular way. Plus you can pause and resume, great if something interupts the download. Hasn’t failed me yet.

     
    Comment by anon
    2008-06-28 22:36:09

    Or you could just double click the file name in Safari’s activity monitor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3EifK3pL48

     
    Comment by Phil
    2008-06-28 22:53:20

    Miro FTW!

     
    Comment by Rose
    2008-06-28 23:00:46

    I never try to download any video from YouTube yet as I seem to have some problem, cannot view any video. Every time I click, it’s always show “Sorry this video is no longer available”. I am from Thailand, not sure if that’s will be the case. The same happened to my friend.

     
    Comment by Jimmy Dean
    2008-06-28 23:10:19

    Wow, very informitive article. thanks for the ideas.

    JT
    http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

     
    2008-06-29 00:15:13

    [...] 修改原文,地址点此>>  [...]

     
    2008-06-29 00:49:00

    Try Replay Media Catcher. It’s free for downloading YouTube videos, and unlike the other tools, it will also save them with the real name of the video, not some random sequence of characters. It even snags videos from sites that the tools mentioned in this article won’t grab.

    http://www.applian.com

     
    Comment by Peteris Krumins
    2008-06-29 02:46:51

    Download with a Perl one-liner:


    perl -MWWW::Mechanize -e '$_ = shift; ($y, $i) = m#(http://www\.youtube\.com)/watch\?v=(.+)#; $m = WWW::Mechanize->new; ($t = $m->get("$y/v/$i")->request->uri) =~ s/.*&t=(.+)/$1/; $m->get("$y/get_video?video_id=$i&t=$t", ":content_file" => "$i.flv")'

    Read how this line was coined here:
    Downloading YouTube videos with a Perl one-liner

     
     
    Comment by Sachin
    2008-06-29 03:55:15

    This is the only useful post I have seen in the last couple of months. Thanks.

     
    2008-06-29 05:46:11

    [...]YouTube, the most popular video sharing site on the internet, allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download them.[...]

     
    Comment by Steve
    2008-06-29 06:16:06

    You forgot DownloadHelper plugin for Firefox. It’s better than all the ones you mentioned.

     
    Comment by Todd
     
    Comment by Mike
    2008-06-29 09:54:18

    The newer versions of realplayer come with a program that can download flash-based vidoes off the web–a little pop-up window appears next to the video player asking if you want to download what you’re viewing. It usually works, I’ve used it a few times. It’s a good program as you already have to use realplayer to view most .rmvb video files anyways.

     
    Comment by tooble
    2008-06-29 10:09:37
     
    2008-06-29 12:20:17

    [...] 4 Quick Ways to Download YouTube Videos off the Net - from MakeUseOf. [...]

     
    Comment by dave
    2008-06-29 15:59:22

    Mac users might also want to check out TubeSock from http://stinkbot.com/Tubesock/

    /dave

     
    2008-06-29 16:41:10

    [...] Four Quickest Ways to Download YouTube Videos Off the Net [...]

     
    2008-06-29 17:16:43

    [...] 原文地址:http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-quick-ways-to-download-youtube-videos-off-the-net/ [...]

     
    2008-06-29 17:31:15

    [...] چهار راه سریع در دانلود از یوتیوپ معرفی 4 سایت و روش استفاده از آنها [...]

     
    2008-06-29 18:30:40

    [...] 4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net | MakeUseOf.com (tags: youtube download) [...]

     
    2008-06-29 19:33:30

    [...] 4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net | MakeUseOf.com if you are a YouTube fan and would love to download some of the videos to your computer so that you may watch them again, without the need to visit the site again, then here are 4 quick ways to do that. (tags: youtube download flash howto cool converter apps) [...]

     
    2008-06-29 19:34:26

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    Comment by Smumdax
    2008-06-29 20:49:24

    You know… technically, every videos you see in YouTube is ALREADY downloaded into your computer. With IE, it’s in the “temporary internet files” folder, and I suppose most major browser have a similar folder… I simply go ther and take it out to some permanent folder of mine. It really ain’t that hard…

    But I rarely download any videos from YouTube because if I want to look at it again, I just go back to YouTube. So unless the video gets removed from the website, I don’t personnaly need to download it… The internet is one big happy virtual hard drive!

     
    Comment by ajay
    2008-06-29 20:53:04

    JUST INSTALL REAL PLAYER IT WILL do all the task for you
    like downloading video files from any website

     
    2008-06-30 00:39:38

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    Comment by Nuclear Coffee
    2008-06-30 05:51:41

    Try VideoGet. It downloads from YouTube, GoogleVideo, MetaCafe, MySpase, Photobucket and other 500+ video websites.
    Full List of supported videos websites:
    http://nuclear-coffee.com/php/supported_services.php?id=VideoGet

    VideoGet also providing you with ability to convert each video in most popular formats for more comfortable video playback. VideoGet supports AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, FLV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats, so you will be able not only to view it, but also put it into your iPod, mobile phone or any other portable device
    http://nuclear-coffee.com/php/products.php?id=VideoGet

     
    2008-06-30 07:00:49

    [...] Via | makeuseof [...]

     
    2008-06-30 09:46:16

    [...] , the most popular video sharing site on the internet, allows its users to upload and share videos easily but doesn’t provide any way to download [...]

     
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    Pingback by Best of the Week «
    2008-06-30 18:33:58

    [...] Downloading from YouTube [...]

     
    Comment by piju
    2008-06-30 21:49:23

    on ubuntu,
    u can also save it manually.
    just copy Flash* from your /tmp/ to *.flv
    and use vlc to play it
    ;)

     
    Comment by seashell
    2008-06-30 22:02:29

    Tks, and Here is another detailed guide which told two easy ways to download free video from youtube
    http://www.aimersoft.com/tutorial/free-download-youtube-video.html

     
    2008-07-01 19:32:09

    [...] Make Use Of. [...]

     
    2008-07-04 17:05:05

    [...] the other day Abhijeet wrote a very good post about 4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net, Aibek has previously covered Top Online File Converters, and I showed you how to easily convert [...]

     
    Comment by Rob
    2008-07-06 21:57:14

    Try this website: http://www.flvresources.com/ . Works for quite a few sites.