New YouTube Layout Now Universal: Users Not Pleased

User reaction has been tepid, at best, to YouTube’s across-the-board implementation of its new page layout. In a blog post, the online video website announced that starting March 8 all YouTube homepage and channel pages will be converted to their redesigned page layout.

The company cites this data as supporting the new layout:

Daily unique visits to channels have increased by 60 percent since December 2011

Daily net subscriptions are up 50 percent since December 2011

Before we look at some of the feedback, here’s a brief overview of the new changes to YouTube channels.

First off, every channel will now be organized into one of four templates. Page creators can choose from among Creator, Blogger, Network, or Everything template options.

YouTube has also updated its Channel Feed, similar to the Facebook newsfeed. With this update, all the videos uploaded to a channel will show up in the Channel Feed, so potential subscribers will get a full preview of the channel’s content before they decide whether to subscribe. And if you do subscribe, feeds from your subscriptions will show up on your homepage. Stalking videos has never been easier.

Also included in the latest slew of updates are an improved Featured tab with a search feature and even more templates, as well as increased customizability of the Favorites feature. Users can also now link their +Page or Google+ profiles to their YouTube channels.

Despite the data indicating a positive user response to the new layouts, YouTube users on Twitter have been vocalizing their largely negative impression of the mandatory new update.

Some have mixed feelings:

And others are embracing the new layout’s ubiquity:

But the majority are criticizing its appearance, its functionality, its general bugginess, or the lack of user choice in keeping the old layout.

It should be chooseable, indeed.

Of course, unhappy people are often more vocal than people with unruffled feathers, and users do tend to react negatively when a change first appears. But it will at least be hard for YouTube to ignore the relative lack of enthusiasm for its latest update. Will @YouTube listen to the complaints of its followers and restore freedom and order to their channel pages? Who knows.

I bet the negativity tapers off as YouTube fixes a few bugs and people learn how to navigate the new layout. Come next update, they may even want to hold onto the layout they hate so much right now. Only time will tell.

Until then, maybe resignation is the best medicine for these unhappy users:

For news on another recent YouTube update that’s not so controversial, click here.