14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube’s ambitions to become the music service of choice for many are clear although not stated. A lot of people listen to a lot of music on YouTube and the site has been trying to cater to their needs without actually starting a dedicated music service. One way of doing this has been with playlists which are smarter and a lot more visible after the YouTube revamp. The site has now quietly introduced a new interface tool related to this, a playlist bar at the bottom of the page.
The new bar seems to be live for everyone. It is very similar to the type of toolbars websites have been adding, modeled after the initial Facebook toolbar. On YouTube, the emphasis is not on social tools but on video playlists. The toolbar features the videos from playlists, but also from temporary quest and other dynamically generated lists. It shows up for playlists saved by others, but also for videos from your subscriptions. It has thumbnails of the videos in the list, so you can jump ahead or back to any of them, and several controls, including next, previous, autoplay and a shuffle button.
The toolbar is minimized by default but it pops out when you hover the mouse in the lower part of the page. The design of the elements is in line with the new YouTube look, but it uses darker colors which make it stand out. It’s much easier to spot and use than the regular playlist, but it may be a bit too intrusive for most people. While the regular playlist was just another component of the UI, the toolbar stands out and grabs all of the attention.
It is possible that this is not the final design and that the toolbar is still in testing. Even if it were, Google is known for its fast updates and constant changes so, based on feedback, the toolbar should see improvements in the future. [via Google OS]