New YouTube-3 Months of New
Design-Loved or Hated?
If you have a YouTube channel or if you watch YouTube videos on other peoples channels, you’ve probably noticed a lot of changes in its look and how it works since March of this year. I’ve been writing about social media engine optimization and social media and YouTube is part of that subject.
The new YouTube design has many admirers who love it but there are, by the looks of it, many more of those who don’t like it or even hate it.
The new YouTube which switched over from the previous design on March 07, 2012 may not yet be fully working as it was meant to be.
Update: as of 23 July 2012 it’s been at least 3 or 4 days since the Reply to comments on videos hasn’t worked on YouTube. I have let YouTube/Google know a day or so ago so let’s see how quickly they fix it. Update: 25 July, 2012: The reply to comments on YouTube videos is now working again.
But still, why do so many people dislike it or, even worse, hate it?
The stated intent for implementing the new YouTube was to make it better. But if it’s actually better, why would so many people not see it that way?
Of course, at least initially, you might say that it’s because people resist change. That may be true but if the change is for the better they soon adopt it. Almost 3 months after the switch from the old to the new, in this case, the sentiment has barely changed.
Many YouTube Accounts Closed By Their Creators
Many YouTube accounts and good ones too, have been closed by their creators since the new design started. I have observed the disappearance of channels of a number of my subscribers and many channels I have subscribed to and watched are gone due to this.
I can only imagine and guess how many channels are gone in total.
So what ticked off so many people?
The new YouTube took away peoples friends. That’s a biggie. You don’t ever take away someone’s friends and get away with it lightly, if at all. For some strange reason YouTube did just that. It stopped showing them on the channels and it stopped showing subscribers and subscriptions on the channels as well in spite of saying that friends are now part of subscribers.
What was clearly visible before, without having to log in, now isn’t. And now you can’t see other peoples friends, subscribers or subscriptions at all, no matter whether you’re logged in or not.
YouTube Seemingly Didn’t Listen to Anybody
Before the changes were implemented, thousands of people with YouTube accounts were pleading with YouTube not to make them. They were even signing online petitions or voting on different channels and going as far as boycotting YouTube by not using or watching it on certain days.
YouTube didn’t listen at all or ignored most of what the concerned YouTube channel creators had to say.
Many YouTube channel creators, operators or account holders-YouTube owns and controls everything and Google owns YouTube-did warn that they would close their YouTube channel accounts. And many did as they were ignored or not listened to enough.
It’s a sad story.
Is the New YouTube Finished and Working As Intended?
Only YouTube knows if it’s finished and done with the new design or if things are still being worked on. But there are signs that it’s not done yet, that it’s still working on it behind the scenes.
To be sure, not everything is bad when it comes to the new YouTube. The new design has some features that are better than in the old design. The playlists and their visibility is one of them.
It would have been better if YouTube had implemented the new features and found a way to keep the most popular old features instead of getting rid of them.
If you want to see an example of what the new YouTube channels now look like, just click on the following link: new YouTube channel look example. While on the channel you can explore it and watch some of the videos that catch your attention.
If you already know what the new design look is and would just like to see a video or two you can watch them right here:
Cat Purring Video:
Freight Train blowing horn:
I think and hope that the new YouTube will get better and though it’s a very optimistic view I hope that they’ll listen more to the very people who create content for them instead of ignoring them.
How about you, what do you love the most and what do you hate the most about the new YouTube?
Do you think that YouTube and Google ever listen to anybody? What chance is there that they will ever change and listen?
Comment in the comments section and then tweet, like on Facebook and if you have Google+ google plus it too. You can bookmark it as well for others to find the post and thus enable them to express their views.
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Authored by Vance Sova
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