Image via CrunchBase

Those who use Firefox have a number of plugins you can use to download YouTube video onto your computer. Many of the more popular ones are incredibly easy. Some allow search and file conversion functionality built right in to the menu bar.

But Safari users generally have a more difficult time locating plugins for the Safari browser. In fact, I've used a little application, TubeTV, for this purpose. It will search, convert, and save to iTunes if you wish.

But I was looking for a way to download without ever having to launch an application. I found this solution.

Here's the shortcut for downloading YouTube videos when using the Safari browser.

1. Go to the YouTube page with the video on it.  
2. [Command] + [Option] + [A] to bring up the Activity window in Safari.  
3. Under the Address Column find the YouTube page.  
4. Under that column, look for the largest file size, which will be the video file itself.  
5. Double click it to download it.  Done.

It sounds more cumbersome than it is.

The file will probably download as a .flv file.  If you have Perian (a free open source QuickTime component that adds native player support for the most popular video formats) installed on your computer, QuickTime will play the file.  Depending on what you want to do with the video file, you may need to recompress it into a different file format.  I've used Stomp (Mac only) for years.  You could also use the (generally) free Zamzar online file conversion utility.