Land Surveyor Blogs

By now, most of us are aware that we do not need to have a video on our computer to upload it to Land Surveyors United.  You can simply find a video on Youtube, Dailymotion, Hulu or any video site which gives you an embed code and simply share it with your fellow surveyors by embedding it here.  You may have also noticed that inside every post on the network there is a little button for including a video. When you click that you are given the option to embed a video from any video service on the web.  But let's talk about Youtube in particular.

What you may now know is that more than 35 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every single minute? The videos were watched a total of 700 billion times in 2010 alone and with so many eyeballs, YouTube has alas become the second most popular search engine on the Internet. It's pretty easy to imagine where most land surveyors are uploading their content.  I am going to show you some advanced tricks for finding exactly the type of video you may be searching for on Youtube.  With these tips you should be able to find tons of great videos to include within your posts on LSU or to simply upload to the network.

Advanced Search Tricks for Finding Surveying Videos

Finding "surveying related" videos on YouTube is quite simple but if you know a few tricks, it can become even more fun and much more accurate. The team at YouTube has simplified their video search function quite a bit, making it easier for people to perform advanced searches on YouTube without learning any complicated syntax. Let’s look at some real-world examples:

#1. Search to Find a specific YouTube channel

surveying equipment, channel
YouTube will have numerous videos related to the land surveying but if you are only looking for an official YouTube channel of say a manufacturer, add the word channel to your query separated by a comma.

#2. Just Limit your search to recently uploaded videos

land surveying , this week
This will only show recent videos related to land surveying that have been uploaded to YouTube in the past week. Also, you may like to use “today” or “this month” to limit your search to land surveying videos that were uploaded in the past month.

#3. Search to ONLY find official videos, no fan material included

Sokkia GSR2700ISX, partner
If you are looking for the ‘official’ Sokkia GSR2700ISX video and don’t want to see any parodies or home-made material in the search results, add the word ‘partner’ to your search query.

#4. Search for whole movies on YouTube

land surveyors, movie
Yes, you can find full-length movies on YouTube (including Bollywood titles) with land surveyors in them. The search operator for finding movies is, you got it right, movie.

#5. Only find high-quality videos on YouTube

Topcon, hd
Add the keyword hd to your search query and YouTube will only show High-definition video clips that are either 720p (1280x720) or 1080p (1920x1080 pixels).

#6. Find 3D video clips on YouTube

Trimble, 3d
Got a pair of 3D glasses? Add the keyword 3D to your search query and discover 3D videos. You may also enjoy some 3D content on YouTube without the glasses – i've tried this with little luck but hopefully in the future we will have some 3D surveying videos to watch.

#7. Hunt down video playlists on YouTube

palmettoequipment, playlist
Playlists are a great option if you want to find and watch (or listen) multiple related videos in one go – like all the Sokkia Total Station videos or your favorite Surveying Field Tricks. You may also copy YouTube playlists to your own account.

#8. Locate lengthy videos on YouTube

surveying lecture, long
Add the keyword long to your search query and YouTube will only return videos that are at least 20 minutes in length.

#9. Perform exact-match searches on YouTube

allintitle:"Sokkia GSR2700 ISX"
Yes, You can borrow the popular allintitle search operator from Google on YouTube to perform exact title matches. Might be useful when the original video is not available in your country due to geographic restrictions.

#10. Mix and Match query tricks

sokkia, hd, this month, long
The best part about YouTube search is that you mix and combine multiple search operators with commas and apply them all to your query (much like the Boolean AND operator). The above example will help use find all sokkia videos that have recently been uploaded to YouTube.

A big thanks to Labnol for these Youtube Search Tricks

Now go out and find something worth sharing with your fellow surveyors!

Related Video Tips and Tricks:

How to Post Surveying Photos From the Field by Email

How-to: 3 Ways to Easily Add Surveying Videos to LSU

Videos Trick: Do More With Your Surveying Videos Using HTML