YouTube videos are getting longer all the time. Heck, you can now watch full-length movies on the site thanks to integration with Google's new Play service.
So where's the in-video bookmark option? What happens if you get interrupted in the middle of a clip and have to close your browser, shut down your PC, or whatever? Without a lot of pesky clicking and searching, how can you find your way back to where you were?
Look no further than Pause for Later. True to its name, this browser extension marks your spot in YouTube videos and lets you easily resume them later. It also keeps a record of the videos themselves, thus saving you from having to bookmark them or search YouTube again.
To get started, just head to the Pause for Later site and sign up for a free account. Then install the extension that matches your browser; the developers have one for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari--though in some cases you might be installing a bookmarklet instead of an extension. No matter--the end result is the same.
Now, when you need to pause a video, you click the newly added pause button (or the bookmarklet) instead of the actual YouTube pause control. That'll steer you directly to the Pause for Later site, where you can view all your paused videos--and, with a single click, resume any one of them.
By clicking the Action button alongside any video, you can also restart from the beginning, mark it as unwatched, copy the link to your clipboard, and more. It's a decidedly handy way to manage YouTube content--and a lot less cluttered and confusing than YouTube's own video manager.
Pause for Later also promises to work with Hulu and Vimeo, though in my tests it didn't actually save my spot in videos from those services; it merely saved a link to them.
Basically, if you've ever had to leave a YouTube video in the middle and wished for a way to save your place, now you've got one. Check it out.
Contributing Editor Rick Broida writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at hasslefree@pcworld.com, or try the treasure trove of helpful folks in the PC World Community Forums. Sign up to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-mailed to you each week.
