Google Gadgets, YouTube Channels, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers

I noticed a change in the Google Ajax API a couple months ago adding mucho functionality to YouTube stuff

One of the neater things was the ability to use channels. YouTube channels are just like your (or someone else’s) homepage for videos. There are some Google gadgets made by Google that are quietly bubbling up through the directory that take advantage of the channel feature and I wanted to display how neat and easy it is (and will be) to make gadgets from your channel.

The neatest gadget I found has all kinds of functionality built into it, but is in essence a very simple way to display videos from a channel. I took the code and played around to see if I could copy their rather cool idea using a channel that wasn’t “built” into the existing gadget.

I made the gadget display Red Hot Chili Peppers videos…

Even though you can’t “see” it yet, if you look at the code of this Google gadget it has user preferences written in that will let you choose from predetermined channels and/or enter your own channel. I am not sure why this functionality isn’t turned on yet, but my point is that very soon, anyone can have video gadgets, even if they have no clue whatsoever about code.

YouTube channels are sorta like free domain names. It is smart to go to YouTube and create a channel for your field, company, or blog name, so that you will have it for yourself. If you haven’t done that yet I suggest you do.