For that we need to look at two things. First we need to download and convert YouTube videos and then add them to the song collection. There are lots of options to download YouTube videos, but in this guide I will concentrate on methods that make it as easy as possible.

First option is the web based service Youtube to Mp3. It is one of the easiest to use if you only want to download and convert a handful of YouTube music videos to mp3 to add them to your iTunes music collection.

All that needs to be done is to paste a YouTube video url into the form on the site. A click on the convert video button displays information about the video and an option to download the mp3.

Add-ons are available for Firefox and Google Chrome that display the download mp3 link next to YouTube videos directly making the process more comfortable.

The second option is a desktop program for Windows that can mass download YouTube videos and convert them to mp3 locally. Download and install Free FLV Converter from the developer website over at Koyotesoft. Make sure you pay attention to the installation dialog if you do not want a new search provider or search page in your default web browser.

Once installed enter a search term on the Search Video page and click on Search. This displays a list of YouTube video matches. Before you now start to download videos switch to the TubeQueue tab and select Audio only as the output format. This automatically converts downloaded videos to mp3 so that it is not necessary to convert the files manually. You can configure output settings in detail here. If you prefer a different output bitrate or audio codec you can configure it here.

Switch back to the Search Video tab and click the Download button to start downloading all the selected files. The program saves and converts the videos automatically so that you end up with audio files that you can import into iTunes.

Adding the new songs to iTunes is actually not a big problem. One could drag and drop songs or folders to the iTunes window to add them, launch them in iTunes or select File > Add File or Folder to iTunes.

The two methods describes above can be used to add new songs found on YouTube to iTunes or the local mp3 collection. Is it legal? That depends largely on your local laws. Consult a lawyer if you are unsure.

But how to they fare if you want to download a playlist, a user’s favorites, channels or all video responses? Most do not offer automatic options to do that. And the prospect of having to add hundreds of videos individually is not really that great.

Enter Free YouTube Download, a freeware program for Windows that offers single and batch downloads of YouTube videos.

All you need to do is paste a YouTube video url into the interface. Free YouTube download will scan the address on YouTube and add either a single video or multiple videos depending on the type of address.

You can paste single video urls, channels, playlists, user videos, video responses and every other YouTube link that points to one or multiple videos.

YouTube Video downloads include

• complete YouTube playlists and show lists
• all video from YouTube charts
• all video responses to a YouTube video
• all videos of a selected YouTube user or a channel
• all video from the user favorites

The input url, number of videos and the total playing time are displayed in the program interface. You can select an output folder on a local hard drive and the desired output format and definition of the videos. Available are standard resolution files up to 1080p high definition videos. Formats available are mp4, avi and flv.

If you want to download all videos that you have pasted in you can click the download button right away to start the downloading. Sometimes you may not want to download all videos from a specific user, playlist or channel. A click on the Output Name button opens a list of all videos found during the scan.

It is possible to deselect some of the videos so that they won’t be downloaded by the application. Only the YouTube videos that remain selected are then downloaded by Free YouTube Download.

There is also an options button which offers some additional settings. It is possible to add a proxy server, enable accelerated downloads or turn on auto-pasting of YouTube video from the Clipboard. The last option speeds up the process of adding videos to the download queue.

Free YouTube Download is an excellent application for Windows users who want to download multiple videos from YouTube users, channels or playlists. The ability to paste just one link into the application to download hundreds of videos is rarely available in video downloaders.

It offers several additional features that other applications usually do not offer. This includes downloading YouTube videos and embedded YouTube videos from third party websites, RTMP streaming videos and YouTube charts.

The software worked fine during tests on a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional operating system. The application can be downloaded at the developer website.

YouTube Snagger is a standalone application for Windows that can be used to download videos from YouTube. The program does not offer a search which I personally see as a big negative, as it means that you need to open a web browser, copy the web address of a video that you like to download, paste it into the application’s interface before you can start configuring the download options and download the video.

A search simplifies the download task considerably and tools like TubeQueue or Free FLV Converter show how its done (check the guide linked above for links). That’s however the only negative as far as this review goes.

YouTube Snagger’s interface has been streamlined for quick downloading of videos. You paste a Youtube video url into the form at the top, select the desired video quality (for instance best available or 4096p) and click the Check Video button afterwards. The program tries to pull data from YouTube and either returns the status that the video can be added or that no video has been found. You need to click on Add video to add the video to the download queue.

A download window will pop up where you need to select a download location on the local hard drive. You can visit the options later to configure the program to bypass the download dialog. New video downloads will then be saved automatically to the standard save location selected in the options.

It would have been nice if the developer would have added an option to automatically start the download, for instance if check video found a video on the pasted url. This would make the whole process more comfortable and reduce the button clicks considerable.

All YouTube videos are listed with their filename, download folder, quality and video title in the program window. This window acts as a queue, and videos are not downloaded until you hit the Download videos button at the bottom right of the screen.

This spawns a new window that displays the download progress, speeds and overall progress.

It is unfortunately not possible to use the main interface while the download window is open. Make sure you have added all the videos that want to download from YouTube before you hit that download videos button.

If you look at the positives you find a responsive application that can download multiple videos from YouTube in a quality that you specify.

The things that take it down a notch are the missing YouTube search option, the to many buttons in the interface, no option to play a video from the interface, or at least launch it in the default player, and that downloaded videos do not get removed automatically from the queue.

You can download the latest version of YouTube Snagger from the developers website.

The following guide reviews the best extensions, userscripts and programs to enhance the Youtube Music experience tenfold.

Youtube Music Player

[Firefox]

Youtube Music Player is a Firefox extension that adds controls to the browser to add and play music videos from Youtube directly. Youtube does not have to be open at all. The extension displays playback controls and music information in the status bar / add-on bar, and the music playlist in a sidebar that does not need to be open when music is playing.

Music is added to the sidebar by drag and drop or by using the built-in search. Every Youtube url can be dragged directly to the sidebar. Playlists can be saved and loaded which makes it possible to maintain multiple playlists on the local computer. The developer plans to integrate playlists from existing Youtube accounts in a future update.

Chrome Media Player

[Google Chrome]

A complete music player for Youtube songs, accessible from a button in the Chrome toolbar. The player has a search and all controls one would expect. May require manipulation of the Global Security Settings of Macromedia Flash.

Lyrics

YouTube Music Video Lyrics

[Google Chrome]

Youtube Music Video Lyrics is an extension for the Google Chrome web browser that ads a lyrics button to the Chrome toolbar. A click on the button while a music video is playing will display the song’s lyrics if they can be found. Chances are pretty high if the song is popular.

Youtube Karaoke rebirth!

[Google Chrome]

This Chrome extension adds lyrics to popular Youtube videos. Instead of just showing the lyrics it displays them in a Karaoke like fashion for users who like to sing along.

Misc Youtube music apps

Youtube Looper

[Google Chrome]

This Google Chrome extension adds a loop button to the controls on Youtube. It can be used to loop a music video indefinitely.

Youtube Music, Social Extension

This is a list of extensions that utilize social media sites, for instance to show your friends what you have been listening to on Youtube.

Last.fm Scrobbler

[Google Chrome]

Scrobbles Youtube music videos which basically means that Last.fm records that you have played the song.

Like.fm Social Music Tracker

[Google Chrome]

A similar extension that reports the music to Like.fm. The extension supports multiple sites and applications, not only Youtube. Also available for the Firefox Internet browser.

Userscripts

Youtube to mp3

Converts and downloads Youtube music videos to mp3 format.

Last.fm + YouTube

Adds icons to Last.fm’s website next to music tracks, albums and artists that redirects to a Youtube search so that the song, music from the album or artist can be played on the video site.

External Websites

Jukesy

Excellent web services that utilizes Youtubes’ vast music collection that offers genre based radio stations (it is all there from melodic death metal to music from the 60′s over Brit Pop to Bossa Nova) and a search. Jukesy plays the video in full screen in a tab in the web browser. Music is played constantly unless wanted otherwise by the user. The usual controls are available on the site. While it is still necessary to switch to the tab to pause or skip a song it is otherwise completely automatic. Pick a station and the music will play for as long as you keep the tab open.

Zebralizer

Zebralizer is very similar in functionality to Jukesy. Pick a genre or search for an artist or song and you will be presented with your personal radio station that plays non-stop for as long as you want. The full video is shown on the page next to options to add more custom music to the playlist.

Muziic

Muziic is not as automated as the other two services in the External Websites category. Users need to add songs to the playlist that then play on auto-pilot. The service offers a desktop application for Windows which offers a similar functionality.

Youtube Disco

An official Youtube feature that can be used to play a number of songs on Youtube without or only little initial configuration.

Download Youtube Music

It is not possible to add all extensions and applications that offer Youtube video downloading features. We have a separate guide for those under Download Youtube Videos here at the site. A recommendation is the Firefox extension Download Helper which is compatible with many different media sites, not only Youtube. Please note that the majority of browser extensions offers to download the Youtube videos, which would then need to be converted on the local system into mp3 if required.

Have we missed a tool in the overview? If you think we did let us know in the comments so that we can evaluate it.

The video player and organizer Miro has not been mentioned a lot, if at all, when it comes to downloading videos from Youtube. That’s surprising as it offers all the bells and whistles needed to not only play videos but also to download and organize them.

Miro combines an elegant interface, compatibility with many popular videos formats and the option to download most videos from the Internet under its hood.

It begins by downloading Open Source application Miro from the official website. Miro can change the homepage and default search engine during installation, users who do not want this should pay attention to the installation process.

The first stop should be the preferences which are located under the File menu at the top menu bar. The two main settings that may need to be changed can be found under Folders and Disk Space.

The video download directory is set to the user directory by default. Some users may want to change that to another location.

Even more important than that is the disk space preference. Miro stores videos only for six days by default which may not be enough for most users. It is possible to select a different retention time up to never which would essentially mean that videos are not deleted automatically by the application.

It is actually pretty simply to add a website to Miro. All it takes is to click on Sidebar > New Website in the top menu. A small form is displayed that accepts website urls. Users who want to download videos from Youtube need to enter youtube.com. It is possible to add other video sites such as Dailymotion or Gametrailers, but downloads are not supported on all of them.

Miro adds the video portal under websites in the left sidebar. A click on the website opens it directly in Miro. A small header bar with controls is displayed on top of the website. Here it is for instance possible to navigate back and forth, load the homepage again, open the page in the default browser or to download the video.

All that users needs to do to download a video is to visit the video page and click the Download this video button afterwards. Miro will then download the video automatically from Youtube.

It is now theoretically possible to load another video. All videos that get downloaded by Miro are stored in the video library.

Downloaded videos can be searched or sorted in numerous ways including date, name, size or time. Miro offers additional options, for instance to create playlists of downloaded videos or to convert videos into a different format.

A lot of add-ons that have been created for the purpose of downloading videos from Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook or Dailymotion stop working, because of the missing Flash plugin.

The solution? Either hunt for an add-on that works despite the lack of Flash, or use a bookmarklet like that offered on Deturl for all video downloading needs.

A bookmarklet has two major advantages over add-ons and extensions: First, It does not need to run in the background. That usually saves some memory, disk space and maybe even some cpu cycles depending on how the add-on functions. Second, it is browser independent and compatible with all modern web browsers.

The Deturl bookmarklet supports many of the most popular portals including Youtube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Vimeo or Gametrailers, and yes, even a few adult video sites are supported by it.

To start, users need to drag and drop the bookmarklet offered on the Deturl website to their bookmarks, or one of the browser toolbars. It is usable from that moment on. Now it is possible to click on the bookmarklet whenever a video page is visited. The bookmarklet tries to recognize the video on the page. For some video portals like Youtube or Vimeo, download links are displayed on the same page in a small stripe on top of the screen. Depending on the video site, one or multiple formats are displayed for download. Videos are linked as direct downloads, and users need to right-click the videos and select save from the context menu to save the videos to the local hard drive.

For some video sites, the stripe is not available. It will instead redirect the request to a page on the developer website. The page containing the video is analyzed thoroughly, and download links are displayed if videos are found. This is the case for Gametrailers for instance.

It can also happen that the video is not supported by the service. In this case no download links are displayed.

The bookmarklet detects videos on third party sites as well. Even multiple videos on third party sites are supported. In this case, a selection of all supported and detected videos is displayed on the website of the service, giving the user the choice to select one or multiple for download.

The bookmarklet is compatible with a lot of sites, and most users should find it sufficient for all their video downloading needs. Only users who want to download videos from unsupported sites need to use a different software to download videos from those sites as well. (via Caschy)

The latest to join the ranks is the S-YouTube Downloader which, as the name implies, is a Google Chrome extension to download Youtube videos.

The extension adds a Download link to the menu bar below each video on Youtube. A click on the link will open the download options below. All available formats that the Youtube video can be downloaded in are displayed on the page.

The available choices are separated into computer and mobile phone formats. The available formats that can be downloaded depend on the original quality of the video but can be as high as full high definition downloads in 1080p.

The extension is excellent as it is unobtrusive and can be displayed only if it is needed. Downloads are started right away without having to use a proxy download site.

S-Youtube Downloader can currently be downloaded from the Google Chrome extension gallery. The extension is currently only capable of downloading Youtube videos with the chance that the developer starts to integrate additional video portals in future releases.

Youtube HD Transfer offers all of those features and then some. The tabbed based program can be used to download single Youtube urls that are pasted into the program or to search Youtube and pick the videos to download from those search results.

The search provides access to several filters to return specific results. Those filters include duration, upload date and category filters, returning only high definition videos, searching for the exact phrase. Sort options are also provided in the search interface.

The Youtube downloader will display related videos in a sidebar which can also be selected for download.

A double-click on a search result will send that video to the download tab which is then automatically filled with information about the video.

The available video qualities that are hosted on Youtube are displayed on that page as well. All available qualities can be selected and a click on the download button will send the video download to the download queue.

The download begins automatically and it is possible to continue using the video downloader in the meantime.

A click on the preview button sends the video to the preview tab where it can be played directly in the application.

Youtube HD Transfer is an excellent program. The developers should consider adding options to add multiple videos to the queue and to provide more search results to the user. The search results are currently limited to 20 results it seems with no apparent option to increase them.

Youtube HD Transfer can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It requires elevated privileges to run.

The differences become apparent right away. Vevo is not available in all countries. Most music videos were viewable by all users at Youtube but Vevo locks out everyone who is not coming from the United States. This is currently not such a big problem as all music videos are still available at Youtube.

Another annoyance is that Vevo seems to display additional advertisement. Vevo visitors get a few additional services like lyrics or artist profiles that are not offered by Youtube. This situation is not that problematic for as long as the music videos are offered at Youtube directly as well. It could however become a issue if a long term goal of the deal is to move all official music videos to Vevo.

Some users reported that the Vevo videos on Youtube load slowly (if at all) and cannot be downloaded. Good news is that it is still possible to download Vevo videos at Youtube if the right tools are available.

The easiest way to download Vevo videos is by using the Firefox extension Download Helper which works just fine for this purpose.

Download Helper will indicate downloadable contents in the Firefox status bar. A click on the icon displays the list of all videos that have been found. Those can then be downloaded to the local computer system.

We were not able to test Download Helper at the Vevo website as it is currently blocked in our country. It would be nice if a visitor from the United States could check and see if Download Helper works at the Vevo website as well.

Check out Download Youtube Videos for more tools that might be able to download Vevo videos.

Update:

Vevo videos use protected streaming (opposed to standard Youtube videos that download to the temp folder). It is therefor as of now not possible to download Vevo music videos with the usual tools.

Update 2:

One of our readers has created a small web script that can be used to search for Vevo videos on Youtube and download them. You can access the script here.

Update 3:

RealPlayer SP can download Vevo videos. Check out this review to find out how.

Youtube Downloader HD is a desktop application for the Windows operating system. The software program is basically one of those Youtube downloaders that require the user to copy and paste a Youtube video url into the application so that it can be processed. Every aspect other than copying the Youtube video url is handled in the main application window.

The download process is divided into four different steps of which two configure download settings. These two define the download directory and the maximum video quality that should be downloaded if it is available.

The quality settings are (from high to low): Avi HD (High Definition), MP4 (High Quality) and Flv or Avi (Normal Quality). If the selected quality level is available the video will be downloaded in that quality. If not Youtube Downloader HD will check the next best quality and then the normal quality if that is the only one available.

Youtube Downloader HD is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft operating system including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

The Greasemonkey script Youtube Auto Buffer And Auto HD and Remove Ads offers a quick and unobtrusive solution to that problem and two additional ones.

Youtube videos will automatically buffer completely without playback. Users who want to do that manually need to press the pause button on each video so that the video is not played but the contents are buffered. The script automates that process.

The Greasemonkey script adds two additional features. The first will automatically load the HD version of the opened Youtube videos. That’s a feature that most Youtube scripts and add-ons provides. The second will remove those annoying ads that are displayed at the bottom of Youtube videos.

Some users reported that they got the script working not only in the Firefox web browser but also in Opera. Interested users can download it from the Userscripts website. Make sure to check out our download Youtube videos guide if you are interested in download videos from the video portal.

The Youtube downloader concentrates on streamlining the download of videos from the popular video hosting website. It comes with a search form on top that populates the main area of the application with search results in seconds. Each video is listed with its title, type, duration, rating and date that it was added to the Youtube video hosting portal.

A double-click will open the selected video in the default web browser of the computer system. The right-click on the other hand will open a context menu with three options. These options are to open, preview or download the selected Youtube videos. The open command will perform the same operation as the double-click. Preview will generate a small thumbnail image of the video and display it in the Youtube video downloader.

Save as finally will open the file browser that can be used to pick a download directory for the selected videos. It is possible to select one, multiple or all of the videos that have been returned as results. It is possible to either download the videos in original flv format or high quality mpeg format.

And that’s it. No fancy options menu to change program settings. No video preview in the application itself. Just a barebone fast Youtube video downloader that does what it is supposed to do. Oh, there is an option to enter a Youtube username and password but there is no explanation why this option is offered and it is not needed to download the videos. Youtube Video Search is available at the developer’s website. Check out the download Youtube videos article for more tools and services that allow users of all operating systems and web browsers to download videos from the video portal.

The Youtube search works independtly from installed web browsers. It will process the first five Youtube results pages by default. This setting can be changed to a maximum of ten processed results pages.

Videos are then displayed with their title, description, playing time, view count, url and date they have been added. A double-click on individual videos will send them to the download manager of the Youtube software program. Multiple videos can be send to the download manager together.

The download manager will start Youtube video downloads immediately. Already downloaded videos can be played in the interface or send over to the video converter to convert them into a different video format.

The file manager will list all downloaded Youtube videos giving the user the opportunity to play them at any time from within the interface.

Videos that have been downloaded can be converted into 16 different output formats including iPod, PSP, 3GP, iPhone, DVD, AVI, VCD or Mp3.

There is no option to change the quality settings of the video conversion. It is however possible to automatically convert videos that have been downloaded into a selected video format.

The Free Youtube Utility integrates itself in the Internet Explorer web browser offering one-click downloads of Youtube videos from within the browser.

The software program works pretty well and combines all the tools needed to work with Youtube videos. Users who are interested in alternatives can check out our download Youtube videos article to do so.

This will open up a submenu with statistics about the selected video including demographics, views and community responses of that video. A discovery option is also available that contains some very interesting options. Discovery will display the traffic sources of the video. In other words, it will display how and where users are finding and accessing the selected video.

Each traffic source category that is listed on that page is accessible so that detailed statistics can be viewed. It is for example possible to see a list of the search phrases that Youtube users use to find the video on the Youtube website. Other options include Google search phrases, external links and embedded players.

Embedded players lists the websites and services that have embedded the video on their website. This can be an excellent opportunity to discover new communities and create relationships for future productions.

Each traffic source that is displayed in this category can be visited by clicking on the link that is provided. This link (unfortunately) does not lead to the page the video is embedded on but to the homepage of the website. The links can be downloaded in a csv file for further processing. Date and country filters are available on the top to filter results based on these two parameters.

Interested users can access Youtube Insight by following this link. Make sure you check out our Download Youtube Videos article for a list of great programs and plugins that allow you to download Youtube videos.

source 10e20

The program is a little bit less comfortable than Youtube downloaders that come with their own search or browser. Users can either copy and paste single urls into the interface of the program or import text files that contain multiple Youtube links. The import only works if the text document contains one Youtube link per line.

A click on the Go button will initiate the download right away. The videos will be downloaded one after the other until the end of the queue is reached. By default high quality defintion versions of the video are downloaded from Youtube. It is however possible to change the quality setting to high quality or low quality instead. This will speed up the downloads a lot but reduce the quality of the downloaded Youtube videos.

YouDown requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 and a Windows operating system. It can be downloaded from the Codeplex [via Addictive Tips] website.

The standalone software can download and convert videos from Youtube playlists into mp3 format which makes it an excellent program to increase a music collection. Other programs that we mentioned could do that too but none were as easy to use as Youtube Playlist Converter.

The user needs to enter a username in the application’s interface. A click on the refresh button will download all playlists from the user and display them in the interface. It is then up to the user to pick one of the playlists for download. A download directory has to be specified before the Youtube videos can be downloaded and converted. A click on the convert button will initiate the process.

The software program will then download the Youtube playlist information to display them in a new window. It is then possible to deselect some of the videos in the interface to prevent them from being converted to mp3.

A click on the ok button will then download the Youtube videos and convert them into mp3 format. The original flv files will be deleted afterwards so that only the mp3 files remain on the computer’s hard drive. Youtube Playlist Converter is compatible with Microsoft operating systems like Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework (not sure which version).

There are basically three ways of downloading Youtube videos: Using a web service, a web browser add-on or a standalone software program. All methods have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. Web services for example are usually independent of operating systems and can be used instantly without having to install software.They do usually lack the ability to download multiple Youtube videos at once.

Web browser plugins require installation. They have the advantage that they work directly on the site which is very comfortable for the user. They also usually do not provide the means to add multiple videos at once to a download queue.

Software programs that download videos from Youtube usually come with the option to add multiple video links to the queue before starting the download. They do need to be installed on the other hand and lack a solid Youtube browser sometimes.

Online services to download Youtube videos:

Web services are websites that provide the means to download videos from Youtube to a local computer system. Some offer advanced features like converting the video to another format. The list has been limited to ten free services that provide options to download Youtube videos.

1. Keepvid: A straightforward service. The user needs to paste the url of the Youtube video in the form provided on the website. Keepvid will then offer low quality and high quality downloads of the video. Works with other video portals like MySpace video or Dailymotion as well. Offers a bookmarklet which works more comfortably than copying pasting Youtube urls.

keepvid

2. Zamzar: A file conversion service that can not only download Youtube videos but also convert the videos into different formats. Great for users who need the video in a different format and do not want to convert them on their computer system.

Zamzar

3. KCoolOnline: Currently supports 231 video portals including Youtube. It has a basic interface. All that needs to be done is to paste a video url in the form to download the Youtube video. Users who like to download videos from many different video portals might like this as it supports a lot of them.

KCoolOnline

4. Video Downloader: Another basic web interface that allows users to download and convert videos from sites like Youtube, Dailymotion or MySpace. Nothing much to say about this service except that it offers downloads in the original flv format but also in mp4 out of the box.

Video Downloader

5. SaveVid: Offers Youtube videos in original flv or mp4 format. Displays a live list of videos that get downloaded by users on the website which can be a great source of videos as download links are displayed directly. Offers top 10 lists, archives and categories as well.

SaveVid

6. Vidgrab: Vidgrab offers a web form that can be used to paste Youtube videos into it. These videos can then be downloaded in their original format. One interesting aspect of Vidgrab is the list of popular videos that are displayed on the website. These can also be downloaded directly to the computer system.

Vidgrab

7. Vixy: Vixy is a video converter that supports Youtube videos. It does not offer the means to download Youtube videos in their original format. Videos can be converted into various formats including avi, 3gp, mov or mp4.

Vixy

8. KeepTube: Online service to download Youtube videos with preview and options to download the video in various formats including normal and high quality flv, 3gp and mp4. Offers additional ways of downloading the videos including a bookmarklet and a very ingenious way by adding keep- after the www. of the youtube url.

KeepTube

9. KissYoutube: Offers a similar service as Keeptube by allowing users to add the word kiss after the www. of the youtube url to download videos directly without having to visit the KissYoutube website manually. Comes with the usual form to download videos from Youtube as well.

10. Video Getting: Another service that combines video downloading and conversion in one interface. Users can paste Youtube videos in the form and download them in eight different formats.

Video Getting

Web Browser Add-ons to download videos from Youtube

The following list contains ten web browser add-ons and plugins for popular web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer that allow users to directly download videos from video portals like Youtube. These add-ons have the advantage that the videos can be downloaded directly without having to visit another website to do so.

1. Video Download Helper (Firefox): One of the most popular Firefox add-ons. It supports many different video portals including Youtube. The add-on will change its icon in the status bar whenever a website with media links is visited.

Video Download Helper

2. NetVideoHunter (Firefox):

NetVideoHunter: Will recognize Youtube videos and add them to its queue with the possibility to download the videos immediately or at a later time. Videos can also be played in the interface as well.

3. Viloader (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera): A plugin that installs itself in three different web browsers. It offers a download video right-click context menu option that can be used to download the videos from Youtube and other video portals.

Viloader

4. IE7Pro: IE7Pro supports Internet Explorer 8 as well despite its name. It comes with a userscript engine and a script pre-installed that can download Youtube videos. The browser plugin will display a download video link in the video description on Youtube.

IE7Pro

5. Flash Video Downloader (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera): Flash Video Downloader operates a web service to download videos and an add-on that can be installed in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera. The Opera is one of the few Youtube video download widgets that currently work with Opera 10.

6. Google Chrome Bookmarklet: Users can use a bookmarklet to download videos in the Google browser. All they need to do is to create a new bookmark in the web browser and add the following JavaScript code as the url:

javascript:window.location.href = 'http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=' + swfArgs['video_id']+ "&fmt=18" + "&l=" + swfArgs['l'] + "&sk=" + swfArgs['sk'] + '&fmt_map' + swfArgs['fmt_map'] + '&t=' + swfArgs['t'];

A click on the bookmark on any Youtube video page will download that video in the Google Chrome web browser.

Software Programs to download Youtube videos

The following list contains software programs for all popular operating systems that allow a user to download videos from Youtube.

1. TubeQueue (Windows):

TubeQueue: A program for the Windows operating system that can queue, convert and download multiple Youtube videos. The program comes with its own search interface making it completely independent from the Youtube website.

Update: TubeQueue is no longer available. I have uploaded the latest version to the Ghacks servers. You can download the program from this link: TubeQueue (237)

2. Free FLV Converter (Windows):

Free FLV Converter: A software program that can search for, download and convert Youtube videos and videos from other web services. It’s biggest strength is the search that can easily handle thousands of results providing comfortable options to download multiple videos at once from Youtube.

3. Orbit Downloader (Windows) : Orbit is a very popular download manager that supports a variety of popular media sites out of the box including Youtube, MySpace or Pandora. It integrates with web browsers and comes with the Grab++ module that can be used to catch and download media files.

Orbit Downloader

4. Youtube-DL (Linux, Windows): A command line program to download videos from Youtube

Youtube-DL

5. Abby and CCLive (Linux): Abby is a frontend for CCLive that can be used to download videos from various popular video hosting websites including Youtube.

Abby and CClive

6. GetTube (Mac): An application for Apple Mac computers that can be used to download Youtube videos.

There are literally dozens of other applications, web services and browser plugins that can be used to download videos from Youtube. Please leave a comment if you think we should add another free services, plugin or software to the list.

Yahoo Downloader is another Firefox extension that has been designed to download videos from portals like Youtube, Yahoo or CNN but also music from sites like Pandora, Last.fm or Imeem. Probably the most interesting feature for many users is the ability to automatically download videos from these websites.

The Firefox add-on places an icon in the Firefox address bar. Some users might not like the location of the icon as it is placed on the left side of the address bar. This can however be easily changed by right-clicking blank space on that toolbar and selecting the customize option. The Yahoo Downloader icon can then be dragged and dropped to another location, toolbar or even removed completely as it is not needed for most of the functionality.

A left-click on the icon will display the window of the download that will list all the videos that have been discovered in open tabs in the Firefox web browser.A click on the download it button will start the download. This can be automated if automatic downloads have been enabled in the options of the Firefox add-on. This setting makes it very comfortable to download youtube videos or videos and music from the other supported audio and video portals.

All videos will be downloaded to a location on the local computer system which can also be changed in the options of the add-on. Yahoo Downloader is a great add-on for users who download many videos or music and want to automate the process as much as possible.