Youtube’s new design, or rather their new, new design is under construction – revealing sparkly functionality and Google’s attempt to merge Youtube and Google+ together. Today I’m taking a secret sneak-peak into what the Google developers have been up to, and how they plan on further changing the beloved video sharing site, Youtube.
Courtesy of ajchristian.com
How Do You See Youtube’s New Design Changes?
Many frequent Youtubers have noticed a lot of glitches and issues on the site as of late. There was an incident a few weeks ago when Youtube even crashed for a while, causing global pandemonium. Now, Youtube’s new design is being tested and chatted about in the secret tech spaces on the internet.
If your computer stores Youtube cookies, you’re still seeing the old Youtube. But if you clear these cookies, you might get the new interface. If you use Chrome, get to the developers console by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J, while on a fresh Youtube tab.
Paste in the following code: document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=jZNC3DCddAk; path=/; domain=.youtube.com”;window.location.reload();
Then press enter, and there you go – Youtube’s new design. It looks like this:
Courtesy of readwrite.com
What SMMU Thinks of Youtube’s New Design Tinkering
At a glance you can see that Google has removed the awesome beige and charcoal homepage interface, and has instead replaced it with their horrible all white interface, the very same so many people disliked on Google+.
I’ve got to tell you, Youtube’s new design is not looking great. The functionality and navigation has improved though. Here’s how:
• You can switch between a ‘now playing’ and ‘recommended’ screen
The recommended videos are based on videos that you’ve watched before, whether you were logged in or not. This creeps me out a little, but it actually takes me further into Youtube’s new design than I’d go on a normal day, because of the suggestions.
• Longer scroll down homepage, showing many categories
You’ll have access to your favorite categories, like News & Politics, Entertainment, ABC News and Movies. A great feature is how many people have already watched these suggested category videos at a glance in Youtube’s new design.
• Larger video showcases, doing away with the ‘thumbnail’ sized videos
When they last updated Youtube’s new design – a big issue was the tiny video windows that fans hated. There was a lot of backlash about them. Luckily, Google has made the video ‘thumbnails’ a lot larger, which is easier on the eye. A great update!
• Video titles are now displayed at the bottom of Youtube videos
The least favorite change to Youtube’s new design has to be that titles are now below the actual videos. It’s a strange change, and we’ll have to wait and see if this contributes to even more view and financial losses to Youtube ad businesses.
• Improved sharing and commenting capabilities
Youtube’s new design also includes a way to add a timestamp when you share videos, and a one click option to record video responses.
And (should I say finally?) the commenting section appears more like the Disqus commenting system, which is really nice for social connectivity and reducing spam. People can add in their personal image thumbnails to go with their comments.
Courtesy of readwrite.com
• There are new playlist features that are less intrusive
Youtube has removed the bottom playlist bar and instead popped it on the right of the video, so that we can actually see it now, while watching the video. This will be great for virality, and it pushes the irritating ad to below the streaming playlist.
Our verdict on Youtube’s new design? Unsurprisingly, the functionality is a lot better, and it’s sure to make viewing multiple videos easier. As for the all-encompassing white design – I just don’t see it being popular. It wasn’t on Google+, and it’s only going to infuriate Youtube fans. But nothing is set in stone – they are still working on it!
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What do you think of the secret Youtube re-design?
Comments
9:02 pm on November 7th, 2012
i hope YouTube made it easier to delete old videos, that was previously very un-user friendly
2:28 am on November 8th, 2012
Lookin’ forward checkin’ out the new design. Not excited about the white either but the functionallity features sound very reasonable.
7:52 pm on November 8th, 2012
@Franz – another ‘no’ vote for the stark white. I wonder if Google even realizes how much people dislike it! – John
8:55 pm on November 8th, 2012
@Sherry – that’s true, we’ll have to wait and see if they added that gem on their to-do list. Thanks for reading
– John
5:49 pm on November 15th, 2012
I used the “make a copy of this playlist” function often – typically if someone created a music-oriented playlist, I could generate a copy of the playlist as a playlist under my account. This made it easy to access through my various devices. Is there a way to do this with the new design? I have not found it. You would have to create a new playlist and add each video manually.
12:21 pm on November 17th, 2012
@Retro – it must be there somewhere, I doubt Youtube would just remove something users use all the time. Maybe they’re just tweaking it, we’ll have to wait and see. – John
5:40 pm on February 4th, 2013
[...] Youtube is definitely becoming more business-friendly. The shiny new user icons personalize the commenting experience, which is long overdue on such a ‘troll’ site. [...]
1:28 am on February 15th, 2013
“With YouTube new interface, this save playlist option is gone. there is a blog entry shows you how to copy playlists in YouTube. http://mvcdiary.com/2013/02/14/with-youtube-new-interface-how-to-copy-youtube-playlist-from-another-user/
It uses a third party service http://youtubeplaylist.net, I find it really helps me out of managing playlists.”
8:24 am on February 21st, 2013
@Kev – interesting, thanks for the tip! – John