If you’ve been on YouTube recently, you might notice some pretty drastic UI changes. After years of star ratings and complex discover bars, the site recently went “back to basics.”

Since Google bought YouTube in 2006, the video site has been in a constant state of development and transition. We’ve seen the addition of close captions, the syndication of TV shows, video responses, friend/buddy lists, instant video sharing, and even annotations. Some might consider these additions improvements, but it looks like far more consider them clutter.

What does this say about the way we watch videos online? With the explosion of streamlined sites like Hulu and the UK’s channel4.com, video content is slowly reclaiming its position as the main focal point of the classic video website. The YouTube team says it wants to make “the video the star” by creating a more “subdued, stripped down and simple” user experience. The goal? When you get rid of the distraction, your video gets the attention it deserves. The result? Videos have a more impactful presence on the web which will most likely lead to better results (which is something we love here at WMS).

According to YouTube’s official blog, the change is based on “eight months’ worth of user research, feedback and data analysis.” Here are their official improvement specs:

Overall look and functionality
- It’s cleaner, simpler and easier to use.
- Information about a video is now grouped together in one place and there’s a consistent way to get more detail when you need it. This way, unless something’s truly useful to you, it doesn’t clutter up your page.
- We’ve cleaned up the actions bar; you’ll see a streamlined presentation for sharing, flagging, and embedding controls.

Discovery
- The right-hand side of the page is devoted to the next video to watch. We’re smarter about suggesting the next videos to watch based on how you found the video you’re watching in the first place.
- The channel name and subscribe button are now both on top of the video. We found that you prefer having a quick peek at more videos uploaders have created before deciding whether to subscribe to their channels.

Playlists
- There’s a new playlist interface, with the next video in the list appearing consistently in the top right. You can easily expand that list or skip ahead using a new next button in the player controls.
- Saving to playlists is easier, and we’ve made Favorites the default option.

Ratings
- We’ve replaced the five-star ratings system with a simpler “likes / dislikes” model and introduced a new “Videos I Liked” list.

Comments
- Comments have a new highlights view which summarizes the best discussions and celebrates when creators communicate with their audiences.

Along the lines of simplification, all users can now add and remove modules from their front page, which is strikingly similar to the add/remove feature from every users’ iGoogle homepage. It looks like Google, the ultimate minimalistic search engine, is having a big stylistic influence on its sister site. Not only is this change putting the web video back in the spotlight, it’s giving users the ability to customize their experience.

With YouTube’s trendsetting influence on the web, expect to see more sites trimming down their excess features and creating a simpler, more streamlined viewing experience. With limited distractions, we predict that viewers will now be more likely to watch the entirety of a video without giving in to a variety of diversions. This new interface means video is making a comeback, and to that we say “Bravo”!

YouTube’s official blog entries on the change:

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/01/video-page-gets-makeover.html

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-video-page-launches-for-all-users.html