Three Ways to Save Video Online

How many times have you watched something funny (say, like this) on the Internet, only to be stymied when you tried to save it to your desktop PC?

Good news: Cnet has what might be the most comprehensive writeup ever of tricks, techniques, and tools you can use to make online vids (like this one) playable on your desktop.

The Cnet article is broken into three parts: First (and easiest) is capturing video (like this) with websites like KeepVid, which let you simply paste a URL into a field on a website, which returns a downloadable file for you. (There's a little more to it than just visiting KeepVid, so be sure to read the full instructions in the linked article.)

Second, you can use a Firefox extension like VideoDownloader if you're using that browser. (Don't use the link to that software in the Cnet article; it links to an old version.)

Finally, there's third-party software to help you grab vids like this. You'll have to lay out a little cash for this option, with the $39 SnagIt (of which I've long been a fan) being the generally preferred consensus.

So, next time you run across something like this, remember the tricks on this site so you can save those videos for posterity, even after the websites go out of business.