San Bruno (ip-192.com): YouTube has a new look and feel: The user interface is more streamlined and tries to make navigating the site easier. Clips appear in categories from Entertainment to Science & Technology to Most Viewed. The old five-star rating system is replaced by a simple "like" or "dislike" feature.
After a year of planning and two months in Beta, the video sharing website hopes that the site becomes "sticky" by getting visitors to watch more clips. All information available is now consolidated into one area below the feed. A plus-sign on the left adds the video to a quick-list, and a number on the bottom right indicates the length of the clip.
90 percent of the videos posted on YouTube were rated 5 stars before the makeover, according to Shiva Rajaraman, Senior Product Manager. The rest were ranked 1 star. While most of the material available on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, some media corporations including BBC and CBS made some of their content available through the YouTube partnership program.
YouTube was founded in February 2005 by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. One and a half year later, the Google Inc. bought YouTube, LLC for $1.65 billion. With a market share of around 43 percent, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video content in the U.S., according to comScore. It is estimated that 20 hours of new content are uploaded to the site every second, and that three quarters of the material originate from outside the United States.
Recent Comments