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There is a website sharing scientific courses in video format. They upload videos to YouTube and then embed them in their website. They share their videos unlisted, so there is no explicit way to get the video link. There a lot of videos, and if you want to rewatch one of them, you need to search for it for minutes; the website has no content search feature. I keep a record of my favorite videos in my notes for watching them again in the future.

In order to find link of a video I use this workaround:

  1. Click the "Watch Later" button on the video
  2. Open/sign-in YouTube
  3. Go to my "Watch Later" list
  4. Get the video link from there

Is there a simpler way to do this? A Firefox extension or a userscript maybe?

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    Have you tried looking at the source of the webpage?
    – terdon
    Commented Jan 5, 2014 at 12:22
  • I can find the video ID in the source code. But I'm looking for a simple tool for this.
    – hkBattousai
    Commented Jan 5, 2014 at 12:29
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    OK, could you give us an example page so we can try it out?
    – terdon
    Commented Jan 5, 2014 at 12:31
  • I had the idea that some other search engines might not care about "unlisted" status, but all the ones I've tried seem to honour it. I guess they aren't smart enough to interpret an embedded video as a link to the original. Or maybe they have a secret non-aggression pact with Google, otherwise who knows, maybe they themselves might become "unlisted".
    – Evgeni Sergeev
    Commented Feb 18, 2016 at 12:12

2 Answers 2

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Whether a video is unlisted has no effect on whether you can get the link from an embed. This instead depends on how they have set up the player. It's possible to hide controls from the embed, which is possible to do whether or not the video is unlisted.

First make sure you have checked all the usual ways of getting the link:

  • The YouTube logo link in the lower right corner. (The most obvious one - almost certainly disabled.)
  • The symbol in the upper right corner which looks like three dots connected with lines. (Only visible when the video is stopped or when you hover the player.) Click that to get a clickable link and a text box that you can copy the URL from.
  • Right clicking the video might give you a "copy URL" option.

YouTube embed: ways to get the link

Assuming all of those don't work, there are of course various ways you can get the link from the source code. If you tell me more about the site, I can write a bookmarklet which does this for you. What I need to know: Does the site use frames? Which embed code does it use? New (iframe) or old(embed/object)? Could you post a sample? Can a single page have more than one video?

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  • After asking a question like this, I don't want to mention name of that website. But I found another embedded video whose link ise protected exactly in the same way. Here it is.. There are no buttons on the top of the video to get its link.
    – hkBattousai
    Commented Jan 5, 2014 at 12:56
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    @hkBattousai did you try right clicking on the video as nitro2k01 suggested? That gives me a copy link option.
    – terdon
    Commented Jan 5, 2014 at 13:05
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    Just to nitpick, that player does have a clickable link in the lower right corner, in the video area, which is hardly visible because of the light background of the video. And also the right click menu works. But anyway, can you look at the source code of the page you're asking about and tell me if it's using an iframe or embed/object?
    – nitro2k01
    Commented Jan 5, 2014 at 13:07
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I just tried on a random video, and clicking the 'YouTube' icon (hover-over says 'Watch on YouTube') opens up a new tab with YouTube and the 'real' link in the address bar. [To the left of the YouTube icon, there was a little 'Watch later as (my youtube name)' button also, as the workaround mentioned.]

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