YouTube: Now anywhere

YouTube is updating its APIs (application programming interfaces) to become a video server for outside applications.

Programmers will no longer be restricted to YouTube's familiar chromed player and can now stick videos into non-traditional players.

The move converts YouTube into a system that serves videos into other apps, rather than just a destination for amateur video-viewing and sharing, according to CNet News.

The change will also spread Google-served video ads to potentially any screen that can play video.

TiVo is using the relaxed APIs to bring YouTube into living rooms. Electronic Arts plans on using them to allow gamers to capture videos from its upcoming game, Spore, and publish them directly into YouTube.

YouTube is not the only online video site broadening its horizons. Early this month, the CMO of VideoEgg explained the company's logic for repositioning itself as an ad platform. Online video has evolved into a commodity, he said.