Youtube Audio Preview

Wow. It seems someone at YouTUBE took this comic seriously and decided to add an “Audio Preview” feature. Now you can hear your comments read aloud to you.

Of course, it’s an optional button using speech synth rather than a mandatory dramatic reading, so it’ll just be used for entertainment by people who haven’t played with a speech synthesizer before:

But then, after a little more browsing around, I see this:

So maybe there’s hope after all.

413 Responses to “Youtube Audio Preview”

  1. [...] and rather perplexing… YouTube has also added an Audio Preview feature to the comments section for users to hear their own comments back, before they Submit them. [...]

  2. millie says:

    You must be so proud!

  3. [...] of times. He has an outsized influence on geeks and thus web culture in general – his work has an uncanny knack for becoming live. And most importantly he was the guest artist on my favourite web comic [...]

  4. [...] lead to better discussion on YouTube. Some Googlers thought that was a pretty fun suggestion, so they did it. YouTube now has an audio preview so you can listen to your comment before you post it. I love that [...]

  5. Myung says:

    Google rocks for implementing your suggestion and you are the king of all nerdy coolness.

    My life is just like how you described yours to be at NASA except the drawing part. I hope to find my passion just like you.

  6. [...] den här Youtube-strippen är också väldigt rolig. Så rolig att Google faktiskt har byggt in just den här funktionen på Youtube efter att ha läst om den på [...]

  7. anon says:

    If you try to listen to the audio preview of an empty comment, the voice just says “nil”. It’s pretty awesome

  8. Maha says:

    Ummm, I’ve never really played with a speech synthesizer, so I was and I still am one of those people who still does play with one of those! I made it say all the curse words, along with other curse words from the other four languages I know. It did a great job of pronouncing a few, but then some of the syllables were lacking correct pronunciation. But overall, I love it and its a great feature! :)

  9. pornexa says:

    is this using sitepal.com’s technology? u just type up http://vhost.oddcast.com/admin/sitepalV4.php?spec=1

  10. Me Baby! says:

    I love this feature!

    If nothing else it’s an easy way to remind people to comment thoughtfully (to put it mildly).

  11. hank says:

    So — doesn’t this make it _easier_ to write the desired virus?
    All it has to do is click the button and turn the volume up!

  12. [...] math and language.” Tirinhas simples, mas rapaz, quando a própria Google implementa uma funcionalidade baseada em uma das tirinhas, você sabe que a coisa é [...]

  13. [...] conclude that “I’m a moron… I… I didn’t know..”). YouTube was paying attention to this suggestion, and actually added audio preview as a(n optional) [...]

  14. a says:

    i was so confused when i saw the audio preview on youtube after reading the comic. it was like a giant practical joke or somehting

  15. xkcd says:

    Perhaps a similar feature will be added to this blag?
    We will see…

  16. Vineet Kumar says:

    @law: ouch. Low blow to the 10-year-old girls of the world.

  17. Emily says:

    I saw the YouTube feature appear after you joked about it in your comic and was amused. It’s completely fun to use, too – it makes everyone sound stupid.

  18. Doutor says:

    xkcd rules!!!

  19. Pogung177 says:

    really, I love with your innovation

  20. Mashi says:

    Greatest.
    I remember reading the comic and laughing, wishing that actually would happen. Then I heard from [adult swim] that someone implemented that feature and I started to freak.
    That was the greatest day the internet has seen. Many thanks to you, sir Randall.

    (Should I be alarmed that one of my re-captcha prompt words is “$60,000″?)

  21. Paul says:

    Just putting this out there… At the rate xkcd is going, it should be another year or two before all the readers of xkcd have completely changed the face of the intarwebs as we know it. I think we should exercise our power by doing what YTMND did to ebaumsworld, a massive assault on the frontlines of the forums. We will rout the trolls from their fiery domain, the OT forums.

  22. Hannah P says:

    Best ever! It’s like having Stephen Hawking read your diary out loud… :)

  23. [...] den här Youtube-strippen är också väldigt rolig. Så rolig att Google faktiskt har byggt in just den här funktionen på Youtube efter att ha läst om den på [...]

  24. This is brilliant! Now all we need is for it to read it out in the voice of Morgan Freeman!

  25. Alex Hawkins says:

    @ Matthew Lloyd

    Dear god, I was thinking the exact same thing.

    You know what else might be cool? If they get pronunciations right, you could use this to proofread your essays or speeches… and one day have it in the voice of Morgan Freeman!

  26. annaaa says:

    When I saw the audio preview function on YouTube, my first thoughts were:
    1. Someone at YouTube reads XKCD? Sweet!
    2. Maybe now YouTube will be a slightly more intelligent place!

    Unfortunately, the second has yet to happen. But perhaps if we give it time…

  27. XP says:

    Funny?

    Maybe, but it means that they had already a speech synthesizer made and tested. And right now it must be using about 20% of youtube’s servers’ capacity.

  28. fasteez says:

    it has some abbreviations

    est -> estate
    ave -> avenue

    too bad for latinists XD

  29. Circaea says:

    I was pretty impressed — not only did I click on it without realizing it, because it’s on the left, but I actually edited my comment after hearing it. I’d say it works as designed. :)

  30. L says:

    Audio preview? I can’t effin believe it.

  31. S. says:

    I just heard about this on Aljazeera. They did mention XKCD’s reasoning behind the feature, but didn’t mention XKCD.

  32. [...] posting it and I doubt they’ll take the time to listen to it before posting either. I love XKCD & their readers’s own take on this too, SalsaShark Says:  Oh man. Idiocy recursion. This is a slippery slope, [...]

  33. Mark says:

    super chicken pockpockpockpock, super chicken poa-oaack

    let *that*thing* read it. if you don’t like it you’ve never been a child (or just grew up or had enough fun of synthesizers already)

    http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FKss2pBYQ6Y btw

  34. youtube says:

    Audio preview?

  35. Practical, every day Social Engineering. If it was on helfbakery.com, I would have bunned it.

  36. s/helfbakery/halfbakery/

  37. I can’t effin believe it.

  38. Hey dude, speaking of how famous you are – Kevin Smith just mentioned your “Someone is wrong on the Internet” comic in his new A/V Club interview.

    Page 2! Peep it out! He says:

    I saw this cartoon that, if I worked in a cubicle, I would totally hang on my cubicle wall. It was a wife talking to her husband who’s at a computer, and the wife is like, “Aren’t you coming to bed?” And he says, “I can’t. Somebody’s wrong on the Internet.” And I was like, “Wow, that’s my fucking life.”

  39. youtube says:

    A partir de ahora -veremos si lo mantienen- a través de la tecnología de Síntesis de Voz (TTS, Text-To-Speech) de Google y apretando el botón Audio Preview lo que escribas será convertido en sonido. El propio autor del comic ya lo comenta en su blog personal.

  40. melis says:

    vvvvvvvvvvvncv nc

  41. Jose says:

    A webcomic inspired this feature?! Hilarious.

    I actually clicked it by accident without knowing it was added and it scared the crap out of me!!

  42. Bajan13K says:

    The feature shows up the fact that voice synth actually sounds slightly worse now that it’s free with XP or whatever than when it was a rare but fun program for the Commodore 64 (SAM, before it was assimilated by Microsoft).

    So, whilst I was plesantly suprised to see that YouTube followed XKCD so quickly (or was it just “great minds think alike”), I was more annoyed by the fact that the playlist drop-down menu is no longer sorted alphabetically, and the YT email system still works in a dimension with alternate-rate time.

    The dramatic voice, though, would still be totally awesome. Esp. if it changes intonation….

  43. Mike says:

    300!!!!!

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