Youtube video embedding changes

Currently, it is easy to embed Youtube videos by using the MEDIA BBCode or just pasting the link into a post. This video is substituted with simple pattern matching which results in the embedded video showing up when the post is displayed (either loading flash or using HTML5 video).

Youtube provides an API to use the video ID to get information about the video. I suggest it would be better to lookup an appropriately sized thumbnail for the video and show that thumbnail (with a play button on top) when the post displayed. Clicking on the link could bring up a popup to play the actual video (using the embed code for the video).

I think this would help speed up page load times and remove the limitation of the number of embedded videos in a post (since only thumbnails would be displayed which a cacheable in the browser) until the user actually wants to play the video.