A new update to Google-owned video sharing website YouTube is thought to be the biggest in their history, as the site looked to show off its planned ‘TV website’ style of interface, following on as an additional from of integration to social networking websites and YouTube’s own brand of original content channels.

Google have dubbed the update as ‘a fresh coat of digital paint’ to try and streamline the viewing experience of YouTube’s users, who give the site an average of three billion ‘hits’ each day. This will become ever-more important as YouTube look to bring in premium content in addition to their traditional user-posted offerings.

Also described as a ‘gateway to a vast entertainment universe’, the update comes with a number of personalisation options, whilst also allowing viewers to quickly and simply recommend (and have recommended) clips onto social networking sites Facebook and Google+.

Other features include a navigation bar to notify users of new activity with regards to both popular videos and their own favourite channels, with an automatic feed of recommended content, and a further option to quickly access ‘recently viewed videos’.

An official YouTube blog post read: “Our recent Channels expansion, our grants and educational programmes, and this new design are all focused on helping you discover a broader range of entertainment on YouTube. We’re always innovating and testing new stuff out to make the experience the best it can be for you. We rely on your feedback to figure out when we’ve gotten it right and when it needs further tweaks. So let us know what you think.”

They went on to describe the basic homepage’s layout, adding: “On the left side of the homepage you can create your own, personal, customisable YouTube Channel line-up. Sign in, or create a YouTube account. Then you can browse recommended Channels; customise your homepage’s feed; even link your YouTube account to Google+ and Facebook to see what your friends are sharing.”

While the aim of this update is to try and establish YouTube as a website capable of challenging rivals run by on-demand TV networks, will they be successful in their plans, or should YouTube just stick to the basic format which sees them regarded as by far the most popular video website on the Internet?

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