When talking about online video sharing, people usually talk about YouTube because Google's service is the top player on this side of the market. However, there are several other YouTube-like products, sometimes described as YouTube rivals, which provide almost the same, if not better, functions like Google's video sharing service. Metacafe is just one of them and, after the most recent update, the administrators hope to boost the number of users interested in their clips.

A few days ago, Metacafe rolled out what was named "The Spring Makeover", a pack of updates which incorporates a new design as well as several other features. The new design is especially supposed "to make it easier for you to access the best, freshest videos on Metacafe," as the company described it.

Besides the design, Metacafe implemented a "What's Popular Now" function which allows you to view the clips considered popular at a certain time. "Check back on the home page every hour to see videos that are popular now, according to what you and your fellow 30 million viewers are watching, talking about, rating, sending to their friends, Digg-ing, embedding on their Facebook profiles (the list really goes on and on)," the Metacafe Team explained.

The updated subscription box lets you manage the subscribed channels easier than anytime before because it now displays up to five channels at a time. "If you're doing a little spring sprucing up yourself, now's a great time to add to your Metacafe 'must see' list with new channel subscriptions," the team added.

Metacafe is no way closer to YouTube when it comes to popularity and number of visitors but, thanks to the new updates, the video sharing service may get some new visitors. At least, you can give it a try and see it by yourself...