We all have that friend or colleague who simply can't resist passing along a link to yet another "hilarious" YouTube video (and if not, well, you might be that friend or colleague). That's okay when it's a quick 30-second videoclip, but does Dan from accounting really expect us to sit through a 12-minute low quality video that doesn't even begin to get good until the 8-minute and 32-second mark?

No longer do we have to, and Dan can link us to a specific spot in any YouTube clip now that the video sharing site has quietly implemented deep linking functionality. To do so, senders need only add a short tag to the end of any YouTube link in the form of #t=_m_s, but instead of underscores, specify the exact minute and seconds (as designated by the 'm' and 's'). So to skip to the 8-minute and 32-second mark, it would read #t=8m32s.

For a more real world example, check out the greatest use of cycle-surfing ever performed in a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8#t=1m44s.

YouTube isn't hyping this new feature, maybe because it's so long overdue, and at least for the time being, users will have to remember the syntax and manually append it to links.

Image Credit: YouTube

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