E-mail is not embed

I was stymied for several seconds by the interface of this Yahoo! player. I was looking for a share or an embed icon so I could add this video to my blog. I saw an information icon. I saw full screen and volume icons. And I saw an e-mail icon. Let me repeat: I saw an e-mail icon.

So I clicked the e-mail icon …

… and found the embed code.

To be fair, the e-mail icon does reveal that it’s an all-purpose “Share” link if you hover for a second or so. The problem, however, is that the icon Yahoo! is using is a long-established icon for sending e-mail. What’s more, Yahoo! is the only major video site that seems to use an e-mail icon as a synonym for a share icon.

How YouTube does it:

Note the arrow that reveals an iconic representation of their video sharing screen.

How Vimeo does it:

Imagine that! Separate links for sharing and embedding the video.

How DailyMotion does it:

DailyMotion uses a text menu with a “URL & Embed code” link.

I think it’s safe to say that users expect embed features to be labeled ‘Embed’ or ‘Share.’ I think it’s even safer to say that users don’t expect an envelope to mean anything other than e-mail. E-mail is not embed, and Yahoo! should redesign their player interface to distinguish between the two functions.