Thanks to various holidays, vacation and/or sick time that doesn’t roll over, and a few other factors, December is traditionally a slow news month. YouTube’s given us a bit to write about, though, as the video-sharing service has unveiled eight updates.

Note that they aren’t eight hugely significant overhauls, and that we’ve actually chosen to label them "updates" instead of "upgrades." Still, a number of users seem excited about the changes, and they will affect the day-to-day YouTube experience.

The YouTube Blog reveals, "YouTube search results now include videos and channels, making it easier for you to access the content you’re looking for. When you enter a search term, highly relevant channels may be displayed at the top of the results page."

Also, "Our Music section is now broken down into genres such as Rock, Pop, Rap & Hip-Hop, Classical, and more. This will make it easier to find and promote all sorts of music videos on the site."

The last of the changes we’ll bother to cover – the others really are pretty minor – is the fact that "[y]ou can choose any image you want to represent your channel, instead of a video still. Just click the ‘Upload an image’ option on your Account page."