Google today released their newest feature on Youtube – Youtu.be, a URL shortener. Youtu.be isn’t that big of a deal, but it can do something.
They want to insure that people know they are clicking on a Youtube link. With Bit.ly and other services you could be clicking on anything. The shortened URL is also useful for developers. A developer can make the link show a thumbnail, embed videos directly with the link, or track the video’s analytics.
To use youtu.be manually, simply take a URL like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdeioVndUhs and replace “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=” with “http://youtu.be/” to get: http://youtu.be/FdeioVndUhs. Plug that shorter URL into a browser, and you’ll see it redirects to that video.