Over the last few days a number of tech blogs, including Ars Technica, have run stories reporting that YouTube is introducing a download option on some videos. I haven’t seen any official announcements from YouTube, but there are some videos on YouTube that now have a small download link located just below play menu. If YouTube makes an official announcement about download options, I wouldn’t be surprised because last week Google announced a gradual shut-down to Google Video. Google Video did have a download option for some its content.

Applications for Education
The option to download videos directly from YouTube could be great for teachers that want to use YouTube clips in their classrooms but cannot due to filtering restrictions. A direct from YouTube download option would make it easier and faster to save videos at home for use in the classroom. Currently if YouTube is filtered, teachers need find a third-party conversion and download application to save videos at home to use in school.

If you would like to learn more about converting and saving YouTube videos check out this blog entry.

If you would like to learn more about alternatives to YouTube, check out this blog entry or this blog post.