code in the ruins

Sometimes you find something on Google Video that you want to download and keep for ever and ever. I found some instructions on how to do this, but it's an awful lot of trouble - look at the source code, find the URL, unescape it… but it inspired me, so I wrote up a javascript bookmarklet.

Here goes:

javascript:void(window.location=unescape(/http.*dgvuniqueid/.exec(document.documentElement.innerHTML)[0]));

There. Create a bookmark with that ugly mess as the location/URL - all on one line (copy and paste it - it should work). Then, when you're on the video page, hit the bookmark, and you'll start downloading a Flash Video file (which you can play in a number of different ways, including with VLC 0.8.4a and newer).

Tested with exactly two videos. This depends somewhat on the way Google formats their page, so it could break at any time. Also, don't pirate anything.

Update: You can drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar to make a shiny Google Video button: Grab Video. Also, it seems that VLC does not yet play the newer Flash 8 videos encoded with the On2 VP6 codec - only the Flash 7 ones that use Sorenson Spark. I don't know if Google uses On2 videos yet, but anyway, here's a very nice standalone FLV player that can handle both types.

Update again: You are using Video Downloader, aren't you?