Welcome to VideoSift v4.2! It's been a year and a day since we launched v4.1 and we're long overdue for a few changes or even, dare I say, improvements. These new upgrades to the Sift aren't overly extensive, so we've just bumped our version up by 0.1.

The Simple

Google Search

As suggested by @kronosposeidon a while back, on the search results page you will be provided the option of jumping to a Google search if the Sift search is not providing the results you're looking for.

The Essential

Video Length

Perhaps the most obvious bit of info we've never included (for various reasons) is video duration. You may have already noticed that some videos are now displaying a "length" value. Whenever a video is submitted or edited, the length is determined by siftbot automatically whenever possible. For videos or video hosts that don't provide the video length, submitters can specify the length on the submit/edit form.

*Length Invocation

Along with the above new feature and given that there are hundreds of thousands of videos without a known length, Bronze Star members and above can use the new *length invocation on videos to update the post. It must be used like *length=1:15:30 with colons (:) included to separate hours, minutes, and seconds. If a unit of time is not applicable, you can leave that part off. For example, on a video that is one minute long the invocation could be *length=1:00 or *length=60. Note that this invocation cannot be used on your own videos. To adjust the length of your own video, just edit the post.

Video Thumbnails

Bronze Star members and above can now modify the thumbnail image for other member videos that have none. (See this post for instructions on how to create thumbnails from videos.)

Update: Members can find a new listing under the "Front" tab listing all videos missing a thumbnail image.

The Achievements

We've added a few new achievement badges for Sifters who enjoy evidence of their good deeds on the Sift.

Assister

The Assister achievement will be awarded to users who put effort into helping videos submitted by other members to achieve high success.

Ban Police

The Ban Police achievement will be awarded to users dedicated to scraping the scumbags of the Internet off the bottom of siftbot's shoes.

Time Keeper

The Time Keeper achievement will be awarded to users dedicated to keeping videos up-to-date with their current, valid duration.

Thumb Nailer

The Thumb Nailer achievement will be awarded to users dedicated to keeping video listings aesthetically optimal with valid thumbnail images.

The Summary

We think these changes are a great step up for the community and hope that you do as well. As always, there may be some bugs or side effects from the changes in siftbot's wiring, so if you notice anything kooky, please report to us here!