Watching the Lego Action

January 15, 2006

Okay, enough of the Facebook tricks, how about a Google Video hack? I noticed a link today on del.icio.us that offered downloads of an AVI for any Flash-based video on the site. However, that site died this afternoon, so I set out to find an alternative that didn't rely on a 3rd-party site. Here's the trick to download an AVI from Google Video:

Use Firefox and install the User Agent Switcher extension
Set up a bogus user extension by going to Tools, User Agent Switcher, Options, Options...
Go to the User Agents section and Add a new agent
Simply put something in the top line, such as "Fake User Agent!" and press OK twice
Choose the new agent through Tools, User Agent Switcher, Fake User Agent!
Now go visit your favorite Google Video and click the Download link - Google will now give you a real AVI instead of that silly proprietary DRM file
Make sure to return to the default user agent after downloading - some sites won't work well with an unusual setting