Clients often come to web design India companies and ask them to redesign their existing websites. Redesigning a website is far more difficult than designing a new website. When you don’t have a website, people have fewer expectations from you, but once you have a great site, users won’t forgive you if you mess up the redesign.
Newbie web designers should keep an eye on latest website redesigns to understand how experts enhance the usability and looks of a site without losing its core branding elements. Google recently redesigned YouTube’ homepage design to make the site clutter free. The new look reminds us about the Flicker redesign. They have put the content, videos, at the center of the page. The homepage offers larger videos at the top of the page and title is placed below the video. Video sharing options are placed below the video title.
Left side of the page displays the YouTube channels you have subscribed to with history and video playlists. This left side is now called “Guide” and is visible across both desktop computers and handheld devices.
The biggest change in the layout is its orientation. It’s not centered anymore. The page is aligned to the left of the browser window and thus, leaves more white space for better usability. However, the less cluttered right side of the page looks a bit empty, if you are viewing the site from a large monitor.
The redesign is certainly impressive and offers better usability to viewers. The world’s second largest search engine finally realized that people come to their website to watch videos and nothing else. Have you checked the new layout yet? Share your opinion with us in the comments section.
YouTube has been facing copyright issues for quite some time now; so, this 3rd October, the company decided to make the video content copyright protection process more flexible for the benefit of users.
The earlier content ownership dispute solving process had fewer steps, but it was quite controversial. For instance, if you had uploaded a video and someone claimed that you used his footage and it should be removed, you would be in trouble. You could file a “dispute” in YouTube to verify that your content is genuine, but if the “so-called” patent holder proved that your claim was false, the video would never be reinstated.
However, now users have more power and can fight an extensive legal battle. From October, YouTube started offering completely new “appeals” process to solve disputes in an organized manner.
From now on, if someone insists that you are using his content after your first appeal, he must file a DMCA takedown notice in order to remove your video. Meanwhile, your video stays visible. If you appeal again against the takedown notice, the copyright claimer must go to the court to resolve the issue.
While this entire process seems quite promising, note that filing for a DMCA notice does not cost anything and may increase chances of false patent claims. Besides, the company said that if someone receives 3 DMCA takedown requests, his account and all the uploaded contents will be removed.
The bug of mobile web browsing has finally bitten YouTube. But this is not another same-old-boring story. No, YouTube is a bit smarter than that and which is why it has deliberately chosen HTML5 for reaching out to next generation mobile users and for making its mobile website all the more interesting and alluring. It is definitely a case of major upgradation, as YouTube looks pretty smart, prompt in its response and as it is offering better loading time. Some of the unique features of HTML5 are included here and the most interesting and promising among them is the video tag. In a sharp contrast to other native applications for example the famous iPhone application, it is going to offer its users superior video quality. YouTube’s mobile website (m.youtube.com) is compatible with almost all HTML5 compliant mobile browsers.
But have you ever wondered why YouTube actually needs a mobile version of its website when it has already has a mobile application with huge install base? Oh yes, it is quite obvious. How can we forget the latest battle of words between YouTube and Apple so easily? So, when Andrey Doronichev, product manager, was trying to make a point that the newly launched web based application is superior from every angle, we should not take it so lightly. The tension that is still brewing between Apple and YouTube is nothing new and therefore, it is no wonder that YouTube is trying safeguard its interest by reducing its dependence on iPhone application by launching a new mobile browser for its 100 million visitors. It, in fact, underscores a trend and the trend is the shift from native apps to web apps whenever it is possible.
Apple was obviously reluctant whenever YouTube introduced any new improvements for its users. As YouTube has virtually no control over the app that is shipped with the iPhone, it was trying hard to minimize its dependence on native app and the latest move is a direct result of this effort. Videos on HTML5 look much more interesting and they are loading faster than ever. If you are an iPhone user, you will definitely notice how YouTube’s mobile site is promoting you to install it in your phone. It appears that Google has geared all its effort to make people switch to YouTube’s mobile and it has tasted some initial success so far.
