Since taking by YouTube, Google has introduced some interesting tweaks to the video-sharing network. Every once in a while these tweaks seem pretty random, but they generally improve the search and organization of YouTube videos. Today’s update does that to a undoubtful extent, and flexes a couple muscles on the design end, for usability and aesthetics (just a couple muscles, though).

There’s a new browsing option for viewing related videos pertaining to the current video you’re watching. that is only accessed when you’ve got a video playing in full screen, and it looks very much like the Your Truman Show VideoMap. You’ll see a little icon in the bottom left corner that looks a little bit like the “TOXIC” danger warning symbol, but trust me, it’s not dangerous at all.

Click that icon and little bubbles will seem, representing your related videos. Hover by one bubble, and you’ll get the title, username and rating, as well as related videos for that clip as well. Navigation arrows let you swim through your growing collection of bubbles, up, down, left or right. whether you feel you’ve veered too far in one direction, thereupon there’s a

little green dot in the upper left corner that will take you right back to your original set of related videos.

I find the new feature visually appealing, and it gives you a pretty fun way of watching more clips without having to minimize your full-screen window. But there’s no way to further your related searches based on username. And what would be cooler than being able to browse the related video bubbles while your original clip is still playing? The saddest part of it all is that that option hasn’t been added to the embeddable YouTube players.

I was additionally surprised to learn, according to Download Squad, that that new browsing feature isn’t available for promoted videos. Even whether YouTube is getting some sort of compensation for promoted videos, I’d imagine that those would benefit from the new related videos browsing option. Perhaps it’s just a matter of a week or so before that new feature is more universally applied to YouTube.

Share This

Original post by Kristen Nicole