YouTubers often use their thumbnails to help draw in interest, and in turn more views. YouTube will usually display these thumbnails whilst another video is playing, or on their main site as you scroll through various videos. As they are so small it can be really hard to find the original source. Nevertheless, below are some easy ways on how to find these YouTube thumbnail sources.
Thumbnail Grabber
Using a thumbnail grabber is a great solution for finding the original thumbnail source of a YouTube video. Whist this option can be unreliable with regards to ensuring video quality, their overall results are overall very good. Thumbnail grabbers are considered one of the easiest ways to find the original source of the thumbnail’s video.
To use a thumbnail grabber you must copy and past the YouTube URL into its box. It will then provide you with the thumbnail and its associated meta data, so long as it is readily available. Whilst this isn’t 100% effective, if done correctly it can be an easy solution for finding a YouTubes thumbnail source.
Using Sourcing
This option requires a good knowledge of HTML as you will need to utilise the sourcing page. This can be found with ease if you are aware of HTML codes. The sourcing page can be searched for on many computers in its search bar. It is important to know that sometimes YouTubes HTML can change, this could cause some potential issues and may take a little longer.
To use the sourcing option to find a thumbnail source you need to choose the video that you want to see the thumbnail of. Next you must choose control/command U. This will then open a source page; from here you open a find function. This makes the whole process a lot easier and saves you time scrolling through codes. To find your thumbnail you should write hqdefault.jpg into the search bar, then you will be able to find your URL and thumbnail.
Use the Video ID
Using a Video Id is considered the fastest way to view a YouTube thumbnail. This is because all YouTube videos are embedded with video ID it is easy to find. The reason it is so easy to find is due to the coding used on YouTube that links thumbnails to videos. They can be easily found and used by the method below.
All you really need to do is find the video you want to see the thumbnail image of and open it. Then you will see that the end of the video’s URL has an 8-digit code, this is the video’s ID. Then you will need to copy the 8-digit code and put this into the URL where it states ID. Next it will open up a brand new page on your browser showcasing the thumbnail image in the highest resolution.
Reverse Image Searches
Reverse image searches allow you to go an extra mile to finding YouTube thumbnail sources. It is important to first save the thumbnail on to your computer. This is so you can then upload it from your computer to your search engine. The reason you cannot search for the thumbnail straight from the YouTube video is because you would not be able to search for it within a URL. When it is saved to your device you can use it this way.
To reverse image search you need to open up your search engine browser and choose images. Then to the right of the search box a camera picture comes up. You should choose this icon and then two options will appear. You should then upload the file that you have saved and click search. Then your search engine will show you where the source of the image has come from and also where it is being used now.
YouTube Image Viewer
This is a great and simple way to find the thumbnail source of any YouTube video. The YouTube image viewer is a safe site that is trusted with no other codes bar thumbnail opener scripts and Google Ads scripts. All you need to do it copy the YouTube videos URL into the search engine and choose the option – get YouTube thumbnail image. This will automatically provide you with the source picture and destination.
Conclusion
Above are five examples of how you can find a YouTube thumbnail source with ease. There are various different methods to follow depending on your computer abilities. The more tech-savvy reader will opt to follow the coding route using sourcing, of which many other different codes can be adopted depending on the computer and level of knowledge one has.
Whilst they are all easily adoptable, the fastest and most efficient way is through using Video ID. This is a quick and easy way to find a YouTube thumbnail source with little to know hassle and with good resolution.