November 09, 2012

YouTube adds 16 Categories to Live Home Page



YouTube's Live Home Page - where a list of all events streaming live or scheduled to stream live appear, has a new layout - adding a list of 16 categories (and new graphics too).
Because YouTube continues to provide its partners the capability to stream live, more live content is being produced. This new layout allows viewers to easily search live content within the following categories. Each category has a dedicated page and is setup similar to an individual YouTube channel where the viewer can subscribe to it.
Subscriptions are sparse with a few channels and Gaming appears to be the most popular.


Sports


News & Politics


Gaming


Music


Google+ Hangouts On Air


Autos & Vehicles


Comedy


Education


Entertainment


Film & Animation


Howto & Style


Nonprofits & Activism


People & Blogs


Pets & Animals


Science & Technology


Travel & Events


Additional notes:

  • YouTube provides special featured events at the very top of the YouTube live home page. 
  • All events that show up on the live listings are created as 'public' events by the channel partner. 
  • Events with more viewers appear at the top of a listing within each category. It appears that if an event is live but there are no viewers, or the event is not receiving a stream (an error message appears) then that live event will still show up in the listings.
  • Although Google+ Hangouts On Air has its own category, there still appears to be HOA events within other categories.

November 01, 2012

YouTube New Watch Page Layout

By Bern Rexer

Google and YouTube are always tweaking. One new tweak is YouTube's browser view layout.

The YouTube Watch Page also has a new layout. The watch page URL is usually in this format http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 'video id' and it is the final resolving location where a YouTube video can be viewed by the user. The Watch Page is  is controlled by YouTube. This article discusses the Watch page from a traditional browser (not from a mobile or TV device).

You will notice right away the lighter background of the new Watch page design - but there are many other diferences. Below are screen shots of new and old.
The new test design YouTube Watch page viewed from Chrome

The current YouTube Watch page viewed in Safari
Also take a look at the article by Chris Atkinson at ReelSEO which discusses this new design.