Problem with youtube search...can anyone help?

youtube | 10/26/12 | SFF

[SoFloFreeper]

Can anyone smarter than me help me figure this out? on two computers in our house, both running windows vista... when we do a "search" for video on youtube, we get a browser full of "JUNK"...I mean, literally, a page full of letters and boxes....looks kind of like this:

dkjxxxxxxxxx kf xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Where the "x"s are little rectangles.

Weird. I have signed off of my account, and the phenomenon still occurs.

When I do a "google" search, that doesn't happen...just on youtube.

Any ideas?

[SoFloFreeper]

Thanks in advance.

[Army Air Corps]

I had the same thing happen to me a couple of times today.

[kingattax]

what are you searching for ? small rectangles are usually in place of chinese characters.

[r-q-tek86]

I get the same thing

[SoFloFreeper]

Nice to know I am not alone...maybe it is the site.

[MHGinTN]

Try opening Real Player and in the search box upper right type WEB, then when the next screen comes up type http://www.youtube.com

[MHGinTN]

Try opening Real Player and in the search box upper right type WEB, then when the next screen comes up type http://www.youtube.com

If you know the URL or hyperlink addy for the youtube video you seek, put that in, instead of the http://www.youtube.com command.

[SoFloFreeper]

Yeah, I know...kinda worrisome.

But it doesn’t matter what I search for, I have changed it to different things...it still looks weird.

[Company Man]

Thought it was just me; I system restored back about 36 hours and the problem didn’t re-occur

[Jacknudy]

Could you possibly have accidentally chosen a different default language? On the main Youtube page, scroll to the bottom, and there’ll be a dropdown list next to Language. Make sure you have English selected.

[MSU]

This is a character set issue. The little rectangle is displayed any time a character to be displayed is not in the character set in use. See this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928847 for a discussion of possible causes.

[RebelTex]

I had that same problem earlier after my system lost power and I rebooted. It might be related to either cookies or some java settings.

Whatever it was, I resolved it as follows.

I clicked on the youtube link in the article and got the same thing you describe.

I then clicked on a known good link I had saved on my system - it played just fine.

I compared them and found that my good link had /watch_popup? in the url and the bad one only had /watch? in the url. Here’s an example (this link is short and very funny, heheh):

bad link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeXMxuNNlE8&feature=g-logo-xit

good link: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=NeXMxuNNlE8&feature=g-logo-xit

I clicked on the bad link and then edited it (in the address bar) to include _popup then hit enter, it worked fine. After doing this a few times, the original bad link started working which made me think it was either no cookie or a bad cookie or bad Java setting or something similar.

Anyway, system now back to normal, LOL.

[StevieB]

Had the same/similar problem early this morning -- on both a PC running Windows 7 and a Mac running OSX Lion.

This afternoon I tried again and things worked fine -- on both systems.

I changed nothing. I just put the problem off until I had a chance to review the issue.

Might have been a problem at YouTube?

[bramps]

I just had the same problem. I was trying to watch an old film noir movie named ‘Footsteps In The Fog’. My solution was to put all of these words in the google searchbar:
footsteps in the fog youtube.

Worked like a charm. Hopefully a temporary youtube problem...but then again maybe someone just emptied my bank account.

[Ben Ficklin]

I’m still having that same problem

[Ben Ficklin]

I’m still having that same problem

[hummingbird]

Hi, RebelTex:

The good and the bad link both worked fine, but when I go to view YouTube, the screen goes black, sometimes with the little circle indicating it is there but nothing comes up.

I'm looking for YouTubes I've seen before but they come up black now.

I've never subscribed to YouTube before. Do I need to do so now.

Did Google and YouTube merge? Is that maybe why I am having problems now? Maybe it is the sign up thing. Something has changed.

Do I need to update FLASH? If so, how would I do that?

TIA.

[RebelTex]

hummingbird, sorry it took so lonmg to reply = I was out all day and just logged on.

It might not be your system - youtube may have been having problems when you last tried it.

Also, it appears to me that youtube redesigned their home page and you don’t get a player on it. You have to click on one the links or do a search and then select the link you want.

I wouldn’t worry about Flash - if you need an update, you usually get a message and a link to pop-up.

Here are some things to check if using IE9:
1. is tracking protection turned on?
2. is active X filtering turned on?
3. is pop-up blocker turned on?

If on, turn them off (or if off turn them on) one at a time and check the youtube website between changing each setting.

Try deleting cookies and browsing history, then close all browser windows, then try the website again.

Try totally shutting down the system for a few minutes, then reboot and try the website again.

That’s all I can think of for the moment. Post the links with which you are having a problem and a description - I’ll see if I get the same problem (may just be a bad link), or find a reason you might have the problem occur.

Hope this helps. (BTW, I will answer, but it may take a while to see your ping - lots going on at home during the holidays.)