YouTube Gets Major Facelift

Do you remember the beta YouTube interface released in June which brought several new attractive elements for the fans of the online video sharing service? The beta appearance came with lots of interface and functionality improvements, being accessible through a 'Try the Beta interface'-like button. Today, the folks working for YouTube officially rolled out the new interface, upgrading it from beta to final, so no matter if you like it or not, you have to use it. Besides the video size which is now larger than anytime before, you can also move the player's sider to jump to any location without having to wait for buffering. This feature was discovered a few weeks ago by the Internet consumers but it seems like YouTube included it in the final version.

Moreover, you're now capable of switching to full screen almost instantly while the video will continue from the position where you left it. Until now, every time you switched to full screen, the clip was re-started from the beginning which was pretty annoying.

The new interface comes with new ways to access the 'Related Videos' because it allows you to sort them in both grid and list views. In addition, "the new "More Videos From This Channel" section shows you a list of up to 30 other videos hosted on the same channel," the YouTube Team sustained. "We condensed the video actions to the four that you care about the most: 'Share', 'Favorite', 'Add to Playlists' and 'Flag'."

"Our new watch page is now a permanent fixture after being in beta mode since June. In the last few months, we've received lots of helpful suggestions from you and the version you see today - which we're affectionately calling "Watch 3.0" - contains many features based directly on your feedback," the same employees working for the Google video sharing technology noted on their official blog.