14 DAY TRIAL // Now that you can get the new YouTube and take it for a spin yourself, it's time to check out some of the new features. The obvious big change is the design. It's much cleaner and whiter and very much inspired by Google+. But there's more to it than just a redesign.
For the homepage, the changes are minimal. The one big thing you'll notice is that everything is stuck to the left now, the page is not centered.
This makes it possible to view the page on any number of screens and not ruin the layout. There's a new way of grouping various activities as well, there are new tabs for Recommended videos, Social interactions and so on.
Video page redesign
The bigger changes are for the video page. The video takes up the entire top half. The title, uploader, subscribe button and everything else is displayed under the video. All the info is in one place, it's a good change.
Another addition is a new floating sidebar, hidden by default, which gives you fast access to your subscriptions, recommendations and so on, everything in the homepage sidebar straight from the video page.
New playlist controls
Playlists are also getting a much-needed redesign. Gone is the bottom bar, the playlist and the controls are now integrated into the video frame.
The playlist title, its creator, as well as the next, previous and shuffle controls are visible. The actual video list is available in a drop-down menu, if you use the expanded view. It's visible all the time if you use the small, default video view.
Music remains one of the big areas that YouTube needs to explore and doesn't, despite the huge amounts of traffic music videos get and despite the fact that for most young people, YouTube is the only source of music. The new playlist should help in this aspect, but many more steps are needed.