Vuvuzela button can drown out audio on YouTube videos
| Johannesburg, South Africa
Want to hear what your favorite pop star or politician sounds like accompanied by the most memorable sound of the soccer World Cup in South Africa -- the droning vuvuzela trumpet?
Try YouTube. The popular video-sharing website has added a vuvuzela button -- in the form of a soccer ball -- on its latest video player, allowing the sound of the vuvuzela to play alongside the video being watched.
The results can be hilarious, try watching a speech by any major global politician drowned out by the relentless blasting of the plastic trumpet, which has caused controversy at the World Cup.
World Cup organizers have said they will not ban the noisy trumpets -- which sound like millions of bees or a herd of charging elephants -- despite criticism from coaches and players.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter said vuvuzelas are as typical of South African football as bongo drums or chants in other countries.YouTube's vuvuzela move has been criticized by some blogs.
"YouTube always has had a way with pranks," tech blog TechCrunch said in a posting about the new vuvuzela button.
"Clicking it will activate an endless, incredibly annoying sound that sounds vaguely like a swarm of insects."
One vuvuzela fan is former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who was sitting in the stands with dignitaries at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Wednesday when forward Landon Donovan got a winner in added time to send the U.S. into the last 16.
"There doesn't seem to be a conductor anywhere. Nobody seems to have a music script but I swear they were playing together. They somehow swarmed," Clinton told reporters. "I can't go home without one these. I have to get one of these."
(Reporting by Marius Bosch and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Ken Ferris and Paul Casciato)
Related:
