YouTube Gets a Makeover

by Ashley Haugen

Things may look a little different next time you log into YouTube. The video website has gone through a major re-design to highlight subscriptions and channels. When you login, you will be greeted with a new homepage that shows recent activity from all of your subscriptions. What I like most though about the new YouTube is their Facebook and Google+ integration.

The re-design sets up YouTube to become a bigger competitor to cable TV. With millions of Youtube channels, the new homepage allows you to better organize and watch the things that interest you the most. "[YouTube] is a container for all the world's video, and it needs to be the best home for that," says Margaret Stewart, director of User Experience at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, Calif.

Besides the appealingly simplistic design, it encourages the user to find new content through the the trending, popular, music and entertainment links on your home page. In the left navigation bar, there are also links to Facebook and Google+. Clicking these displays videos that your friends on either network have shared. Having these all in one easy, clean space is very attractive.

Check it out for yourself, or watch this video showcasing the new design.

Facebook Friday: Timeline to be a Major Profile Overhaul

People have not stopped talking about the changes Facebook unveiled at yesterday's f8 conference. Granted, even the smallest announcement from the social networking giant spurs plenty of conversation, but the features Mark Zuckerberg revealed are definitely worth the buzz.

I covered the initial changes (the Ticker and Top News feed) Facebook already leaked in yesterday's post, but the most noteworthy announcement from yesterday was the Timeline feature.

The Timeline will eventually replace the current profile page, and is both a visual and conceptual overhaul.

The idea is that the Timeline would curate all of your past Facebook activity into a scrapbook of the most important moments. It's still in developer mode and not open to the public yet, but I took a screenshot of my profile so you can see what it would be like:

As you can see, the profile picture setup has changed. Instead of the 180x540 pixel size, you now have the square thumbnail picture and the giant Cover Photo. Also, the two column approach to the main section is also a big departure from the old profile setup.

Visually, there is a lot more real estate to work with, which is great news for designers and the artistically-inclined. It'll be a while until these new changes go into affect for everyone, but it'll be a dramatic change for the 800 million Facebook users.

Facebook: Social Media's Jack of All Trades, Master of None

After spending a week in Boise, ID on vacation, I come back home to find some pretty dramatic changes to Facebook's home page.

Aside from the slightly darker blue border on top (the first thing I noticed), the biggest change is addition of a timeline on the sidebar. This timeline serves as the "Recent News" feed, while the main column on the home page has become the "Top News" feed.

If Facebook's new layout is a bit confusing, check out this shorthand graph I found yesterday.

The point is that Facebook essentially took their existing friends feature, added the fast-paced, short feed style of Twitter on to its sidebar, and threw in a Google Plus-like top stories feed. By doing so, Facebook has certainly broadened its scope in terms of social media features, but at the same time weakening the depth and strength of those features.

However, there are still plenty more Facebook changes coming as we speak since Mark Zuckerberg is holding his annual f8 conference. I'll cover some of the highlights in tomorrow's Facebook Friday post.