Thoughts on new YouTube video player, the layout.

I recently read in the YouTube UK blog about the new video page layout on YouTube. I managed to get it at college, but I couldn’t get it at home. However I only recently found out that it’s an “Opt-in” kind of deal. So I gave it a shot, and I was impressed.

The first think you will notice how minimalistic it looks. This is great, as those with slower internet connections will not have to wait for ages for a YouTube video to load.

Moving on now, the video description is under the video it’s self, I think that it is a lot better there. Because most people don’t even read the description, having it under the video will draw more attention to it. It also saves space on the right hand side. Which can be used to add more features. The view count has also been placed there.

Next thing, is that all of the YouTube user data is at the top (In simple terms the channel of the user who uploaded the video), next to that link there is a menu where you can see all of that users recent videos. Another feature that I like, saves space on the side bar and I don’t have to keep scrolling down all the time. The Subscribe button has been placed above the video as well. I think having the button there makes more sense, you can just watch the video and then click subscribe without having to scroll around to the right to subscribe.

If you are the uploader of that video, you’ll also get all the video editing options (for the descriptions), and you can also add anotations from there. It is placed above the video title.

 

Now onto the ratings. It seems YouTube have opted for a facebook “like and dislike” system. Instead of the old rating system. I quite like that because it is simple and it means that people can tell you whether they like the video or not without having to be confused about all the 5 stars stuff.

YouTube have also added a share and favourite button under the video as well.

Finally, onto the comments section. They have added an “Attach video” feature to the comments, instead of having a separate section to post a video comment. Really good feature, as it has more integration with the comments section.

 

That is not all that this new layout has to offer. I didn’t cover everything since most people don’t want to be reading on forever. I did cover the major changes.

Overall;

The layout is nothing short of amazing. It has been laid out really well and it isn’t hard to find where everything is. This is the one update that YouTube have gotten right in the past year.

News: I’ve become a writer on Duncsweb

I’ve been posting comments on Duncsweb for a while now. I really like getting involved with what people post on there.
Today I was contacted by the owner of the site DuncanM and he asked me if I wanted to start writing on there, I accepted his offer and I am now part of the duncsweb team. I am very happy and honoured to be given this position, and I will continue to produce content for the site.
You can view my profile here.

My advice, is to be involved, you can't expect to be noticed, if you do nothing to get noticed. You have to be in it to win it.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to posting more content both on this blog, and on Duncsweb.

Steam Beta – My thoughts.

I was bored one day, and I thought that I should give the beta version a try, it was free so I wasn’t going to miss out on anything,
and if I didn’t like it. I could just go back to the original steam client.

Thankfully this was not the case.

It seems that the steam beta is a hit or miss kind of deal with some people. Personally I love it, but at the end of the day you either love it
or hate it.

I like the beta as it allows me to organise all of my games into specific lists, and categories of my choosing with ease, in the previous version of steam,
all of my games were unorganised and hard to find, with this new feature included in the beta. It makes my life so much easier.
Also it allows me to see any relevant game updates or releases at a glance, in contrast to the older steam client I had to right click on each game
just to see if there were any updates. It’s a nice user interface. The in game overlay and web browser have also been improved. Simple and easy to use.

Now onto what might push you away from the steam beta.
First of all, your not going to be able to chat to other players using the in game overlay, which I find annoying but not too much of a problem.
Secondly, some games might have a hard time working with the steam beta. This hasn’t been the case for me, but reading around on the internet,
I’ve found that some people have this issue. It is something you might want to take into account when trying the beta out.

My final verdict;

This steam beta is good for those who want to save time, and are looking for a much easier and better looking interface with better organisation.
If your worried about not having the chat and some games work then I would avoid it until the final release.

If you don’t like the beta, you can always revert back to the original steam client. You have to keep in mind that the new steam is in beta and will have the
odd issue from time to time.

 

Thanks for reading.

Blogger in Draft – My thoughts.

As many of you already know, I’ve done a major overhaul of the look and feel of the blog, I was sick of using the old templates.
So I decided to give blogger in draft a try, and use the new template designer, that is supposed to allow you to adjust each aspect
of the blog. It has also given me the option to add “Pages” to the blog, these are not blog posts per se but they allow me to dedicate an
entire page to one subject, instead of getting it mixed up with other unrelated blog posts.

Blow is a screen shot of the new template designer interface

Personally I think it is fantastic that it allows me and many other users to make a professional looking blog, I have yet to find a single fault with it.
I have to say that Blogger has done a fantastic job here. It’s worth checking out if you have the time.

Blog updates. 25/01/10

As you have probably all noticed, the blog has undergone a few changes.

The biggest change would have to be the template. I got fed up of the dark template and opted for something different for a change.

Other changes include.

• Added a "Twitter" widget to the side so you can see my latest posts on Twitter.
• Google search to make it easier to search Google.
• Wakoopa tracker so you can see what software I use on a daily basis.
• "Latest videos" added to side to show some of my latest videos on YouTube.
• Added a "Follow" button so you can follow the blog.
• Added RSS and Atom feed buttons so you can subscribe to the Blog in a reader.
• Added a "Share" section which allows you to post the blog to Twitter or FaceBook.
• Added "News and Blogs I read" so you can follow other technology blogs that I read.
• Added "Where you can find me" so you can find me on the internet.

Other fixes pending.

• Punctuation needs correcting
• Minor spelling errors
• YouTube videos posted on Blog posts need to be resized to fit within the column. You'll notice why if your using a High resolution monitor using 1440x900 or greater.
• Removing the "Google search" title from above the Google search box as it looks unprofessional and doesn't tie in well with the rest of the blog.
• Looking to add more widgets and Gadgets to the blog.

I think that the Twitter widget will need some updating to help it blend in with the new template.

I am also using "Windows Live writer" to make Blog posts.

Some ... small updates to the Blog.

As you probably all know I have updated the blog with new features and so on.

Here is a run down of all the new features.

• Added a small "Video Box" to the right side. To give a small preview of the latest videos.
• Added "Share, Subscribe, Latest videos" to the bottom of the page. I added them so you could subscribe and share, and watch my latest YouTube videos.
• Added "News & Blogs I read" to the right side. So other people can follow the same blogs and news sites that I follow.
• Added "Where you can find me" to the side. I also added some sites that I post on regularly.
• Added "Google Search" So readers can search google without having to leave the page. It is also there to help people search for something specific from the Blog as well.

I am also using Windows Live Writer (When I have access to it) to publish entries to the blog. I like using WLW (Windows live Writer) as it's easy, it's effective and it also makes my blog posts seem a lot more professional.

YouTube Updates

Yes it's time once again for an Update. I'm just going to talk about what export settings I will be using for my videos from now on.

I've been using the Xvid MPEG 4 codec for a while now, and while it did give me ok quality, when I zoomed in on the screen the text became pixelated and I didn't want that on my screen recordings, so I am now using .MOV and hopefully it should yeild better results. Only problem with .MOV is that it take quite a while to redner but I have set it to render with the best quality settings.

I'm also going to start doing some more software reviews on YouTube as well as making some more tutorials and video blogs. With that being said I am also going to be recording my webcam while recording my screen capture.

So you might start seeing a difference in the quality of my videos from now on.