A universal media player designed to improve a user's online media experience that is preferably embedded in an Internet browser is disclosed. The universal media player allows a user to navigate between different sources of media without requiring the downloading of the media player associated with the format of the media source. The universal media player includes an interface with user-actuable control buttons, the universal media player determining whether incoming media is playable by the universal media player. If the incoming media is playable by the universal media player, the media is intercepted as the media is downloaded and redirected to the universal media player. Determining if the media is playable is accomplished by identifying the type of incoming media and searching a table of MIME media types.