Google has just completely overhauled the Youtube interface and you’ll barely even recognize it when you see it for the first time.
“Today we’re introducing a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat of digital paint,” declared Youtube. The vision is for Youtube to become a new “gateway” to entertainment, as the online giant said.
When you navigate to different channels, they’ll now have splashier graphics and brand identities than ever before. And finding new and interesting content based on your past viewing habits is more seamless and user-friendly as well.
“We’ve used your feedback to improve our overall design, and today, we’re presenting a cleaner and simpler YouTube, with a consistent grey background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page,” the search giant explained.
The site also now makes sharing videos on Google’s own social network, Google+, the default way to spread content. Of course the ability to post videos to Facebook remains, but since Youtube is a Google products, it’s now pushing Google+ a little stronger.
Youtube has started becoming less about going to Youtube.com and clicking through multiple videos and more about streaming individual videos that are embedded on other sites, posted to Facebook, or linked to from an external source.
The new redesign hopes to make users more “sticky” so they’ll hang around the Youtube site itself a bit more.
The redesign is live right now. Google is soliciting feedback from anyone who has a strong opinion about the new look.
