This is the theme I am running on this site.

I added a YouTube video hook on the Single post page. Instead of using a WordPress Plugin that would be an additional step I took my AJAX API Video plugin and incorporated it into the Functions file. Thanks to Chris Pearson for the inspiration for this idea.

By using the function file there is no need to have an additional Plugin to install. Whenever you write a post the single post page will automatically search YouTube for videos that match the title and put them in a horizontal bar under the post. These videos will play dynamically on the given page utilizing the Google AJAX VideoBar.

The Minimal WordPress Theme is excellent on Niche sites that focus on Search engine traffic. CelebrityRamble is one site that is already using the theme.

Make sure to change the Adsense to your account, and you can move the YouTube videos by relocating the ajaxapivideos() call

EDIT : This theme is also Widget Ready.

  Tweet

Add a “Video Bar” to your blog
September 29, 2006
Google AJAX Search API Blog

…An early adopter of the API known as “CyberCoder” had a cool idea… He envisioned a “Video Bar” that could sit in a narrow side bar vertically, or across the top or bottom of a page horizontally.

Last night we launched a Video Bar solution. This makes a great addition to your blogs and pages and composes nicely with an existing Video Search solution. To show you an example, we added the video bar to our AJAX Search API Playground blog.

I have developed a lot of page variations around this Video Bar over the last 18 months. One thing that always comes up when dealing with AJAX technologies is the fact that AJAX inherently does not help with SEO since the JavaScript elements are not read by the search spiders. Putting this fact aside, adding AJAX to a page can have significant advantages. More bloggers need to realize that not everything on a page needs to be part of their SEO functions. Adding relevant information to a page, especially videos, can greatly affect the amount of quality traffic and links a site gets.

Last year I was also involved in the Blog Bar that was added to the Google AJAX API lineup.

Add a Blog Bar to your site
March 15, 2007
Google AJAX Search API Blog

On February 7, we announced the availability of the Google News Bar. This cut-and-paste search control is simple to use and has seen phenomenal adoption.

Anytime we launch a new AJAX Search API feature, we ask you to share your thoughts with us in the AJAX Search API developer forum. Late Sunday evening, “CyberCoder” (a.k.a., inventor of the Google Video Bar) asked us to produce a modified News Bar that worked over Blog Search instead of News Search.

You can also see other Community Samples built by developers using the Google AJAX Search API, and maybe get yours listed too!

So here is my latest addition to using the Google AJAX API VideoBar. The AjaxAPIVideos WordPress Plugin.

The AjaxAPIVideos Plugin is designed for WordPress and adds a videobar to pages wherever you include the code snippet.

The plugin uses the post title to search for videos and return 4 small thumbnails in a horizontal Video Bar. When clicked on, the video will play on the page without requiring another page load and this means that not only does the visitor stay on your site, he can start and stop the video from your page. And since the search query is simply the Post title, the videos should be relevant to the post content (if your title is relevant). If no videos are found, the space where the video thumbnails usually appear is simply closed up and the page keeps it’s flow without an empty thumbnail etc.

I have always thought the advantage to this type of dynamic page load is that you do not have to anything other than write your post, and you get relevant videos loaded on your page.

Getting relevant videos loaded just doesn’t get any easier than this!

Download the AjaxAPIVideos WordPress Plugin here.

PS: If you are wondering why there are no videos on this page, Youtube is returning zero results for “AJAX API Video WordPress Plugin” which is not a bad thing, that means the plugin is working, no relevant videos, no problem. To see a page with the videos click on a previous post in the right sidebar. Or click a tag from below, the Video Bar Plugin is also loaded on the Tag pages.

  Tweet

Video Blogs are also referred to as Vlogs, although I am not sure that rolls off the tongue as well as Blogs, and they have been gaining ground over the past year or so. Two big factors fueling this are the cost of digital video cameras and the purchase of YouTube by Google. Face it, if Google buys it, it must be something worth looking in to, and everyone rushes in.

Mike over at MusicRamble.com posted a small list of Music YouTube Channels and it is obvious that a lot of musicians are starting to understand the value of having their own YouTube channel. Combine this with the news of Google partnering with Panasonic to develop TV’s geared more towards Internet content and the Vlogging picture starts to focus a little more.

Just think, you can have a YouTube channel and be on TV. It don’t get no easier than that.

And yes, I already have the CyberCoder YouTube Channel.

Now, who will take advantage of Vlogging and become the next (or first) Internet Video Star?

  Tweet

Also, I added a Google Videobar to the top of the main page. Google has made this soooo easy and they are not even requiring an API key anymore for the video bar. I have my videobar set to the RadioBlogTalk YouTube channel.

If you are interested in the Videobar check out the amazingly simple Videobar Wizard Page!

  Tweet

RadioBlogTalk is a new Internet radio talk show I am producing in partnership with Garry Conn. We hope to release a new show each Monday and discuss topics that are relevant to our readers. If you follow the RadioBlogTalk link to the RadoBlogTalk YouTube channel you can subscribe there and help us, help you.

For our first show (Google PageRank Makes Bloggers Crazy) we decided to talk about the latest Page Rank update and all the hoopla being discussed about it.

If there are topics you would like to have covered, or you have any general suggestions please drop a comment here and let us know.

  Tweet

During this process I discovered how much I enjoyed video production and I have decided to do some more. Here is my next video which was inspired by several people I work with who have a problem keeping up with email. Using the techniques in this video will help anyone do a better job of managing their email, instead of letting their email control them.

Please give me some feedback and help me improve my video production skills.

  Tweet

Link : YouTube Videos

There are a lot of limitations to what videos you will can currently play with this setup.

Basically it is either contextual or based on a YouTube category. It will be interesting to see how this progresses. I like the idea, but as usual with anything new there will be a lot of testing and adjusting to get a system that makes sense to the end user and satisfies Google’s plan for monetizing video.

  Tweet

See this page at YouTube.

But, you can work up your own YouTube custom player and preload it with your Favorites or other channels. I have setup a page to demonstrate. CyberCoder – Custom YouTube.

The information at YouTube is located here.

  Tweet

This video does a good job of explaining in very easy terms how API’s work. Whether you are interested in the Google, YouTube, Facebook or almost any other system an API can give you the access to a wealth of information to mashup your data and ideas with.

Check it out and let me know if you find it helpful.

  Tweet

By adding an image to the background and a few little tweaks of the CSS file I was able to get the same result. I think it actually helps augment the video player and video title. To see the results click on one of the URL’s below and click on a video in the left sidebar.

I placed this new page in its own folder to demonstrate the ability of making a dynamic page that can have different URL structures. Using PHP I setup a default variable or you can pass any variables to create the following.

• Page Name
• Page Title
• Keywords
• Description
• API results

Examples : (default variable is “Blog Search”)

http://www.cybercoder.net/layout/

http://www.cybercoder.net/layout/You-Tube-Layouts

http://www.cybercoder.net/layout/You-Tube-Layouts/

http://www.cybercoder.net/layout/You-Tube-Layouts.html

The search box will pass input to PHP and the result will be displayed with the following URL. It is not hard to convert this search box to use any of the above URL structures.

http://www.cybercoder.net/layout/index.php?a=You+Tube-Layouts

This project took approximately 2 hours to complete. The bulk of the time was getting a good image formatted just right for the results. No programming was needed on the actual page as the CSS file took care of everything once the image was formatted. I also use the htaccess file to create the redirects for the multiple URL structures.

  Tweet