By Pasting the symbol that YouTube uses (▶) into [codepoints.net][codepoints], you can see that they are actually using a different unicode version.  The character returned is [**`U+25B6`**][U25B6] (not to be confused with `25B8` and `25BA`)

This should look better:



    function PrependPageTitle(player) {
        var playIcon = '\u25B6 ';
        var startsWithIcon = document.title.substring(0, playIcon.length)===playIcon;

        if (player.paused && startsWithIcon) {
            document.title = document.title.slice(playIcon.length);
        } else if (!player.paused && !startsWithIcon) {
            document.title = playIcon + document.title;
        }
    }

Demo Here:

[jsFiddle][fiddle]
=====

[fiddle]: http://jsfiddle.net/KyleMit/Tt48M/10/show/light/
[codepoints]: http://codepoints.net/
[U25B6]: http://codepoints.net/U+25B6

Adding to the question on [Why does the HTML symbol for ▶ not work in document.title][SO],
when I add the play symbol to the document title using the properly escaped javascript hex value, the symbol seems squished:

**JavaScript:**



    document.title = '\u25BA' + document.title;

**Inside Page** *(correct)*

![BodyDemo][BodyDemo]

**Inside Title** *(not so correct)*

![TitleDemo][TitleDemo]

See this fiddle for a working model.  I've added *`/show/light`* so the javascript can actually access the document title on the main page, but if you take off the extension, you can see the code as well.

[jsFiddle][fiddle]
====

This appears to be happening on all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE).

**Tested** (on Win8) in:

* Chrome: *version 30.0*
* Firefox: *version 22.0*
* IE: *version 10.0*


When I go to YouTube, it looks fine, so I'm not positive it's a Browser Specific Issue.

![YouTubeDemo][YouTubeDemo]

[SO]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16930905/why-does-the-html-symbol-for-not-work-in-document-title
[BodyDemo]: http://i.imgur.com/9B5to0C.png
[TitleDemo]: http://i.imgur.com/vh75d8P.png
[fiddle]: http://jsfiddle.net/KyleMit/Tt48M/show/light/
[YouTubeDemo]: http://i.imgur.com/2ZfMYNS.png