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New Media News Every Morning

YouTube Overhauls its Video Page, Hoping We Will All Like It

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YouTube is currently overhauling its standard video page view into something that it considers as one of the site’s biggest redesigns ever. Basically once the redesign is finished, you will noticed two major changes – new playlist interface, search queue and integrated comments.

The new playlist interface will now include an option for autoplay mode which if turned on will automatically bring you to the next video once the current video has finished playing. If you don’t want like this feature, you can always turn it off anytime. But if the search results consist of robusts set of videos You Tube will automaticall play these videos one after the other. This will now become a standard in all of the YouTube videos.

As for the search queue, this feature will let you add videos to your queue. While the integrated comments will now lists both text and video responses to trigger conversation around a video.

The new video page view is currently being tested by selected individuals. Once testing is done, expect the new video page view to appear the next time you check out YouTube.

Or, if you can’t wait that long, check out this preview site to prepared yourself for the coming changes in the way you watch video on YouTube.

Hope you like the new page view. Honestly, it’s way cleaner and more organized than the current interface.

Via Business Insider

 

Originally posted on February 26, 2010 @ 1:24 pm

Google to Force Users to Stop Using IE6

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If Microsoft could not make Internet Explorer 6  users to upgrade to IE8 Google might actually succeed in doing so. And what could be a better way of forcing users to let go of the old IE6 web browser? – By disabling YouTube support. But Google is not doing this to make IE6 users upgrade to IE8 but rather to a more advance browser which could either be Google’s own Chrome browser, IE8, Opera Mini 10, Safari 4 and Firefox 3.6.

So if you’re still using IE6 and try to visit YouTube, you will see a message prompting you that you are using an older browser and that while you may still enjoy watching videos, after March 13, YouTube will stop supporting it. And unless you upgrade to newer browsers you will no longer enjoy new features that will be introduced after the said date. The message will appear for three weeks until you upgrade to a newer browser.

Interestingly, while Microsoft is not really that active and pretty succesful in convincing IE users to upgrade to the latest version, Google’s strategy might actually work. I’m pretty sure majority of these IE6 users will not want to miss out on the good things that YouTube is about to offer in the future.

Another interesting point here, which I think Microsoft should be thankful for is the fact that Google is forcing users to abandon IE6, it is still suggesting IE8 as an alternative browser.

Let’s see whether this strategy will gain Google more users for its Chrome browser  and whether users will finally stop using IE6.

Originally posted on February 23, 2010 @ 5:35 pm

YouTube Tests a Cleaner, Less Cluttered Video Page

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YouTube is currently testing out a new layout of its video page, a more simplified and streamline video page if I may say so – all for the hopes of offering the best possible watching experience to users. The new video page is currently on an opt-in  basis, but anyone can try it out even if their primary language is not English. However, all the elements in the video page will be in English.  Like any of its opt-in feature, you can easily go back to the old video page via a single click.

So, what does the new video page offers? There’s quite a lot actually and these include:

Streamlined look and functionality – The new YouTube video page is now more subdued, stripped down, and simpler than before.  The redesign was aimed at offering advanced features in the highest way possible for users. The new YouTube video page focuses more on the video rather than the add-on elements that you see on a normal YouTube video page.

Smarter “next up” video list – This is a pretty cool feature of the new YouTube video home page. It takes into consideration how you found a particular video and will queue your next video to watch based on how you arrived at the current video. For example if you’ve used the search facility, the rest of the search results will be placed on the right side of the video page – making it easier for  you to check out the rest of the video search results.

Less cluttered design and united description and stats – You can now find more specific information about the video you’re watching in one place – underneath the video. If you click on “description”, you’d see more information about the video you are currently watchin.

Action Bar  is Now Cleaner –  The new YouTube video home page now has a cleaner “sharing” action bar. Sharing, rating, saving or flagging a video are now all grouped in one place.

Simpler Video Rating Scheme – Yes, it’s now a matter of selecting – “like or don’t like. Sound s familiar? In addition, if you like a video, it will be automatically added to your favorites.

New labels for video size and video quality controls – Aside from the usual selection of how you want to view a video, YouTube is also offering new size control .

Search while you watch – While watching a video, you can conduct a search and the results will be displayed on the right side of the page.

More prominent channel/subscriber placement and a new “see more videos” feature –

The “subscribe” button is now placed on the top of the video, right near the title. In addition, there’s is now an arrow next to the number of uploads on the person’s channel to let you view more videos from uploaded by that person.  Hence it’s now easier to find other videos.

If you want to try out the new YouTube video page, click here.

Originally posted on January 21, 2010 @ 4:06 pm

Vimeo to Go Full 1080p HD for its Premium Vimeo Account

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Introducing Vimeo Plus! from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo.

If you’ve been paying attention to the videos that we usually embed to some of our news coverages here in 901am (I hope you’re watching these videos), you’ve probably noticed that aside from YouTube some of those came from Vimeo, a video uploading and sharing site similar to YouTube. If you’re a Vimeo user, specifically a paid Premium member, by the end of this month you can now start uploading full 1080p HD videos to Vimeo.

Wait, just hold on a second. Wouldn’t that affect online playback of your videos? Especially since HD videos demand higher and faster bandwidth? Actually, yes it does affects online video playback. So Vimeo is giving you the option whether to choose sharing 1080p videos or stick with the current HD-quality 720p resolution.

Vimeo is perhaps enabling this feature to answer the signs of the times since the influx of cheap portable videocam has made it easier to produce HD videos at 1080p resolution. And besides, YouTube has been  allowing it for quite some time now.  Since Vimeo is being touted as the best YouTube alternative, it is but logical for Vimeo to have that feature as well.

Of course, this would also give Vimeo’s $60/year Premium package more attractive to users, since 1080 video uploading feature will only be enabled to paying members.

In addition, Vimeo is also allowing premium account holders to make their uploaded videos available, downloadable and viewable on mobile phones.  And pretty soon, a native Vimeo iPhone application will be available.

So if you are not a Vimeo Premium account holder yet, now could be the best time to get the Vimeo Plus subscription.

Originally posted on January 6, 2010 @ 4:31 pm

Justin.tv Plans Pay-Per-View Scheme

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Is pay-per-view really the best way to go for web video site to monetize their site? I mean, earning some big dough from all the great videos upload to their site is Google’s biggest struggle with YouTube yet. Is Justin.tv, a famous video web site suffering the same fate as YouTube as they plan to make a pay-per-view model for their site?

Beet.TV is reporting that Justin.tv will be testing out a pay-per-view service for selected premium video content. Justin.tv claims more than 35 million views per month, so the owners want to turn some of these views hopefully into cash, to perhaps help pay the bills.

The pay-per-view platform is set to be rolled out next month with a projected full launch across its entire network sometime in Q2 of 2010. Under the new program, Justin.tv channel creators can start charging for their content, with  Justin.tv managing user authentication and payment system. In return the site will get 30%  of the payment. Minimum charge per paid view will be $1.

Justin.tv has currently around 40,000 content creators streaming their programming lives daily. There are currently 1800 shows on Justin.tv and around 800,000 registered users.

Will this give Justin.tv a much needed boost in the company’s financial forefront? Would content creators finally be able to earn significant revenue from their video content?

Answers to this question will definitely depend on how much users are willing to spend to get their daily dose of user-generated video content.  Pay-per-view user generated content is still somewhat an untested water, so Justin.tv should ensure that their premium contents really have value.

Originally posted on December 20, 2009 @ 10:52 pm