This week millions of YouTube users were surprised to be greeted with a completely overhauled new look on the video site. It is the biggest redesign in YouTube history and has made the users homepage look more like a social media site. Not only does the YouTube page look like a social page, but it also integrates both Google + (of course) and Facebook into the mix as well.
The overall layout is sophisticated with the activity feed dominating the page in the center, a navigation bar on the left, and a nice stream of recommended videos on the right. The recommended videos are chosen through a complex algorithm that takes all of your current subscriptions and also factors in what videos you have watched recently – what comes out is a nice tailored list of videos that will likely catch your fancy and keep you browsing through YouTube from video to video for hours.
As mentioned earlier Google + and Facebook are featured there however you don’t get pestered with annoying updates from your friends, on YouTube’s homepage you can view videos that your social media friends have uploaded. Google is using this as a way to show off all of their cross platform abilities and also to try and draw a little more attention to their own failing social media site.
On top of that there are also filters that can be seen on the left side of your YouTube homepage. These filters are just below Facebook and Google + and are used to filter the news feed in the middle however you want. The main filters are trending, popular, music, and entertainment however there are many more filters that can be applied when you click on “see all”.
Another thing that was drastically changed on YouTube was that new templates were added for channel owners that would let producers promote in a way that suits them. These templates also come with a Feed Tab that allows visitors to view a variety of actions by the channel owner.
The new templates include:
Blogger: this has a featured video and shows all other videos in a chronological list from newest to oldest.
Creator: this template has a featured video along with featured playlists and other available channels.
Network: here users will only be able to see a featured video with featured channels.
Everything: lastly the Everything template shows a featured video, playlists, and also featured channels.
So why the new renovations?
First off, Google is obviously going to be incorporating more and more aspects of Google + into YouTube to broaden its member base by attracting new users. On top of that Google knows that users need a customized homepage that puts a variety of targeted information in a single spot. The home pages will lead to more and more videos being viewed due to the various feeds and recommended videos on their YouTube homepage.
Overall the new look is great however there will definitely be additional changes here in the near future.
