Search YouTube like a pro with these 5 tricks
YouTube provides a venue for anyone to upload and share content with the world. It has become a streaming service, search engine and social media medium alongside the most prominent sites of these types.
Searching YouTube is as easy as typing in a word or two, but did you know there are more ways to find content? You can focus on live events or eliminate parodies. You can make playlists or narrow down your search to a specific time. We’ll show you how to do all this and more.
1. How to find live events
Many concerts and events are broadcast live on YouTube. You can watch them in real-time along with a global audience. There are a couple of ways to do this:
- Type the word live after your search phrase.
- You can also browse upcoming and current livestream events to pick the ones you want to watch. Go to youtube.com on your computer and select Live from the left column.
- On mobile, open the YouTube app and tap Explore > Live.
You may also like: Tap or click here to learn how to watch YouTube picture-in-picture on your iPhone.
2. Narrow your search
YouTube boasts more than 2 billion monthly logged-in users, with more than 500 hours of content posted every minute. With all that content, finding what you want can be a matter of narrowing your search down by the date a video was posted.
Type in the search term(s) for your video, followed by this week or this month. For example, try “Spider-Man” new this week.
You can also use YouTube’s filters to narrow things down:
- Go to youtube.com on your computer and do your search.
- Once your results are loaded, click on the Filters dropdown box and select the upload date, ranging from Last hour to This year.
- On mobile, tap the three dots icon, then tap Search filters.
3. Find the actual music video, not just the parodies
8 YouTube pro tricks for better searches and more privacy
Here’s a YouTube trick I stumbled upon and now use all the time: When you’re trying to learn to do something and getting lost in the steps, open the video’s transcript.
Press the three dots or the more option underneath the video’s title, then choose Transcript from the dropdown menu. You can copy it, save it, and print it. That was easy, huh? Just be careful about downloading the video. Tap or click for a list of ways you may be breaking the law online without knowing it.
A quick and easy way to find live sports games and TV shows
Remember when you used to need a TV Guide to know when your favorite shows were airing? Thanks to digital cable and the rise of streaming, it’s much easier to know when our shows are on air. But not everyone subscribes to the same set of channels or services, which can easily lead to confusion.