This is my review on the new Youtube video page layout. YouTube has made some major changes to their classic video page design. The comments are mostly the same, with the exception of two new features. If the user who uploaded the video you are watching decided to reply to a comment on the video, the uploader’s comments would be directly under the video in a “User Comments” section. There is also a “Highest Rated” comments section where the comments that get the most “Thumbs-Up” votes appear. I really like these new changes to the comments, but YouTube needs to work on the comments section a little more, as users have had trouble posting comments or replying to other comments. The video description box has moved from the top right hand corner of the screen to directly under the video. That is a rather mild change compared to the new rating system that YouTube has implemented.
Instead of star ratings (1-5 stars), YouTube has switched to a Thumbs up-Thumbs down system on all videos. I believe this is a bad idea, as it gives the impression that YouTube is trying to change to a more Facebook-like feel on their website. If you decide to “Thumbs-up” a video (YouTube calls it “Like”), that video will go in a page on your YouTube account called “Liked” videos and only you can see this page. Another problem with the “Like-Dislike” system is that the only way you can view how many people like and dislike a video is to actually vote on it. This creates problems for uploaders who have to click on their own video and “Like” it so they can see how many people thumbed their video. It also makes it impossible to see if a video is legit or just a prank video (example: If you are looking for a video of Barack Obama, you might click on a video with just a still picture of him, and you wouldn’t know it got bad ratings). The views counter hasn’t changed much and neither has the “Related Videos” that appear on the right hand side of the screen.
The new YouTube layout would get a thumbs up from me, if it weren’t for the new ratings system. Some users suggested that YouTube include a percentage (example: 20% means 20 percent of the people who rated the video, actually liked it). This would be a good feature to add on, but it would have to be visible for users to see under the video in the search results page. You can see an example of what this would look like here: http://www.faberoptime.com/images/ytlikedratingssuggestions.jpg
Overall, the new layout isn’t as bad as some people make it out to be, but it needs some changes.
[Please note that this blog post was written before the 2nd recent change to the video player]
Friday, May 7, 2010
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