Is there any point in using the seamless and or sandbox attribute for YouTube iframes?

Question

Update: This question is no longer valid. See comment below.

1. YouTube embedding is done using iframes nowadays.
2. HTML5 introduces the seamless attribute

Answer 1

I'll focus on just discussing the sandbox attribute.

To play YouTube videos in a sandbox you need to do the following:

1. Add sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin"
2. Add ?html5=1 to the video URL

A problem with #1 is that Flash will not be loaded; whether Flash is required depends on a few things, such as the end-user's browser, their YouTube settings or when a video is simply not available as an HTML5 video (this is worsened by #2).

Another (more serious) problem with #1 is that the combination of allow-scripts and allow-same-origin effectively removes any security benefit you would have otherwise enjoyed.

Conclusion

Forget about using the sandbox attribute for YouTube video embedding.

Further reading

• HTML5 Sandbox and some notes
• Error playing embedded youtube video in a sandboxed iframe