Personalization Rules YouTube Homepage’s Priorities – Synergized with Google Accounts
Personalization seems to rule the roost in the web 2.0 scenario. I won’t be surprised if a day comes when every user shall be viewing different pages despite visiting the very same link. Yahoo has been a giant portal that had always been keen on building its homepage a one-stop portal for everything a regular web visitor might want. Now, it’s time for YouTube to be fierce about retaining eye-balls for as long as it can manage.
Gone are the days when you visit YouTube and then keep wondering what to watch next. The homepage of Youtube has been completely revamped and now YouTube suggests you the videos you might like to watch, on the basis of the previous data and your viewing history. I doubt if they had to incorporate any new algorithm to get the “Recommendations” since a similar idea of “Related Videos” had been a part of YouTube for a long time now, right beside the video pane. All it now has to do is rather than comparing the tags present in the current video you are watching, it needs to compare the tags of all the videos you have watched till date and prioritize the recommendations according to the frequency of similar tags.
The brand new look allows users to choose modules like “Recommended For You”, “Latest From Subscriptions”, “Featured Videos”, “Most Active Videos” & “Friend Activity”. There are also modules showing the user’s inbox, stats about the user and his/her videos. I must admit, the interface looks very neat and one can move around the modules according to one’s personal preferences. However, YouTube allows the modules to be moved only vertically. I guess, lateral movement would have been greatly appreciated.
True to the web 2.0 structure, the user is also allowed to choose the modules that he might like to be displayed. However, I shall miss the animated featured videos that YouTube seemed to throw off at you, in the previous look. Here’s a link to an image showing each and every module on the home page.
Apart from revamping the website, YouTube has also come up with the idea of integrating YouTube users with their Google Accounts, which shall make both the users’ and Google’s life a lot easier. Reminds me of the initial days when Orkut was integrated with Google and also Flickr getting integrated with Yahoo.
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