Cosmic Panda. YouTube’s Experimental Redesign.

YouTube has released an experimental interface codenamed Cosmic Panda. Videos, playlists and channels have a cleaner interface and darker theme. Content creators will appreciate the removal of some of the clutter that makes it easier to focus on the video.

With nearly 8 years of video uploaded and 3 billion views logged every day on YouTube, it’s clear you like to watch and share YouTube videos. While you’re watching your favorite or new videos, we at the ‘Tube are obsessing night and day over how those videos are presented. Our team is constantly experimenting, tweaking and playing with new ways to make your experience exactly what you’re looking for.viaYouTube

So how does Cosmic Panda compare to the older interface?

Older Interface Vs. Cosmic Panda

Channels now have a darker background and have a large thumbnail for each video. The bigger thumbnail looks good but you now have to scroll down the page to view additional videos. There is also a link to featured videos, all videos, and comments at the top of the page.

Original YouTube Channel

Video playlists have a new design with a black background and the video is front and center with distractions minimized. Playlists now have a widescreen look and Cosmic Panda makes it very easy to go from from episode to episode. The video title has also been  moved to just below the video.

You can Cosmic Panda by visiting youtube.com/cosmicpanda. If you don’t like it you can disable it from YouTube’s control panel.

The Bottom Line

Overall, the redesign is less cluttered and appears to be more focused on content, which is good for anyone who hosts their videos on YouTube.

I would like to see more options to customize channel pages with background images and color schemes. Hopefully this feature will be added in the future.

This blog post originally appeared on my blog at REbliss.com.