Ever came across a Google Video Player (.GVP) file? You’re bound to sooner or later with the amount of digital video content on the net.

GVP is not a new video format. Rather, it’s simply a plain text file that contains metadata about an actual video file. Take for instance, the following:

# download the free Google Video Player from http://video.google.com/
gvp_version:1.1
url:http://vp.video.google.com/videodownload?version=0&secureurl=ugAAAH_1H8Yu95EJtMuzFT6-X9Oaw1AQYKoyH9Pzbi0LnopJ2uFDOMIQ0ELLeWQe0SzIHN44NrpacmK3Q9OEswjpSJzC1RDc6DxZcL3NRLLcFESJLjErtD-iZXXYDenDBkGpvDXG7Xut9SFmBC8RUqGmLqosWMwS20c04qw55N_BTjeU9d0p93rbjGkOF0GLaNd_yhaN8cBFLkg8NPL82ikRp83CfS16JTeVIS3Ab4x9E_H6VnqIiy-5KSBN-0TGiyF9kQ&sigh=21pimKCTGJiC5qXu2nKy1F5YMTk&begin=0&len=3008680&docid=5464925144369700635
docid:5464925144369700635
duration:3008680
title:Discovery_Channel_-_The_History_Of_Hacking_Documentary.avi
description:the history of hacking

That is the content of an actual GVP file. As you can see, it specifies the url, title, description, and length of the video file. If you try to access the url from a browser or any download manager, you’ll be able to save the actual video file to your computer.