YouTube unveils biggest redesign in its history

Published on 12-03-2011 04:53 PM

YouTube has launched a major redesign of the site, making it look and feel more like a social network.

The redesigned video site displays a single news feed in the centre of the homepage featuring videos that an individual’s friends have uploaded onto sister site Google+.

There is a channel feed on the left hand side of screen encouraging users to ‘subscribe’ to their favourite YouTube channels and shows – which could mean a major boost to TV networks and individuals who have their own channels on the site.

And there are big Facebook and Google+ ‘buttons’ also in the left hand column so users can easily share and see content from the video site through to their choice of social network.

On the right hand side is a ‘Recommendations’ feed, which will suggest videos that users may like based on their current subscriptions and video-watching history.

The overall feel of the new YouTube is more like a social network, rather than a linear video site.

The Google-owned video site has been trying to make in-roads into hosting as much professional content on the site, as well as user-generated content and encouraging users to set up channels. However, in the UK, apart from a landmark deal with Channel 4 and then Channel Five, few other content owners and broadcasters, have entered into full syndication deals with the site – instead preferring to set up their own channels on the site and control the distribution of their content themselves.
Moreover, Google’s big push this year has been around cracking the social side of the web. Since launching Google+ just over 100 days ago, it has been trying to make sure of all of its web products, such as YouTube, Maps and Gmail, have a social element deeply embedded into each user experience.
YouTube’s facelift is the biggest in its six-year history.

Categories:
Internet

8 Comments

anon - 12-03-2011, 05:45 PM
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As far as I'm concerned, every time a site changes its design, it seems to be for the worst... but I download YT videos and watch them locally instead of streaming, so it's not a problem.

mr. nails - 12-03-2011, 08:20 PM
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I think the new design is ok at best. I do in fact hate that I can't delete videos out of my subscriptions that I've already watched like we could previously (unless I'm missing something?).

josh87 - 12-04-2011, 12:56 AM
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i think its revolting, i think they should give a option, say like this site for example, you have different styles to choose from, i think for youtube account holders, you should be able to pick which layout you want

ulun64 - 12-04-2011, 07:14 AM
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I still prefer the old one....

Gaza - 12-04-2011, 03:57 PM
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I hate the new layout.....

tesco - 12-05-2011, 11:40 PM
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Am I the only one that likes the new layout?
The home page has gone back to how they had it a few years ago, which btw everybody complained about when they changed it the first time, and now they're complaining that it's changed back.
I like how it shows a list of the latest updates from your subscriptions in order of date, rather than sorting them by channel which made certain channels (at the top of the list) get all my attention while others (at the bottom) got none.
As for the actual styling of it I find the background a lot easier on the eyes than the white.

Sporkk - 12-06-2011, 01:25 AM
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Originally Posted by tesco

I like how it shows a list of the latest updates from your subscriptions in order of date, rather than sorting them by channel which made certain channels (at the top of the list) get all my attention while others (at the bottom) got none.
As for the actual styling of it I find the background a lot easier on the eyes than the white.

I like it better too. Much easier to check the latest videos from your subs.

citadel535 - 12-06-2011, 07:39 PM
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While it is visually impressive eye candy wise, I do not like the changes Google is going through, many new items you have to click on submenus to get to where they were previously one click away. Google has previously taken a minimalist approach to its designs and it worked so well, now they have a new ceo who dissolves Google Labs which was a think tank to come up with new stuff. I have a feeling Google, in the long run, going to become a bloat site if it doesn't deviate from its current course.