YouTube redesign goes live, crashes site

YouTube rolls out redesign
YouTube rolls out redesign

YouTube finally launched its video page redesign this week, only for the site to go down replaced by the words: "Sorry, something went wrong. A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation."

Once it was back up and running, the new, simplified design was revealed. The main changes are to with the video controls, the rating system and new save options.

It's now easier to choose the size you want to view your video at, with YouTube saying it will optimise the quality of the video depending on the size you choose.

There is also an extra button to make the video wider if you so wish.

Biggest ever redesign

As we have explained before, the five-star rating system has been ditched in favour of a Facebook-style Like/Don't Like.

It is also easier to save videos to your favourites and send them on to others. This is because YouTube has added the following options: Save to Favourites, Save to an existing Playlist, Create a new Playlist to save to.

"This new video page makeover is one of the biggest redesigns in YouTube history – and we're excited to make YouTube a better place for you and your content," said YouTube about the makeover.

One thing it has also announced is new for April and is a 'Textp' quality option. This converts videos to text, saving the site $1 a minute in bandwidth.

You would have to be a Fool not to try it out.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.