FAST FORWARD

YouTube adds new ‘Chapters’ feature that let you skip through to best bits of a video

YOUTUBE is adding a brand new feature that makes it faster to get to the best bits of a clip.

The new "Chapters" tool breaks videos in sections – and lets you quickly flick forward.

Google announced the surprise feature on Twitter, confirming that it would be available to immediately.

The bad news is that it's not automatic: video makers will have to manually set up chapters themselves.

Chapters are assigned using "timestamps", and can be named to highlight exciting parts of a video.

Viewers can then quickly fast-forward to the very best moments in a clip.

The feature has technically been available since April, but is only now official, global and "here to stay".

It's designed to make videos more like a book – and means very long videos are much more bearable.

Google has updated YouTube with the feature on desktop and the app, so you should see it everywhere.

And when you're using it on a smartphone, you'll feel a little buzz on supporting phones – indicating when you're scrolling between chapters.

Here's what you need to know...

YOUTUBE'S first-ever video was uploaded 15 years ago – on April 23, 2005.
It was a clip posted by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, marking the beginning of the website's rapid and unstoppable rise to internet dominance.
The video is titled "Me at the zoo", and is geo-tagged to San Diego.
In the clip, Karim gives a short speech to camera in very low video quality by today's standards.
He's standing in a zoo talking about elephants, who can be seen in the background.
YouTube's inaugural video has now been viewed more than 90.2million times.
It's received nearly 3million likes and has racked up more around 5.3million comments.
Karim met fellow YouTube co-founders Steven Chen and Chad Hurley while working at PayPal.
The trio went on to create YouTube, although Karim was officially an adviser to the site – rather than being an employee.
He remained relatively unknown until Google purchased YouTube in 2006.
Karim received 137,443 shares of stock, which was worth roughly $64million at the time.
Watch the clip .

The move comes just days after Google sparked fury with a controversial YouTube update.

The firm is testing a new feature that shows Google results inside the YouTube app.

It means that website links appear among videos when users search for clips on the site.

The update came in the same year that YouTube celebrated its 15-year "first video" anniversary.

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