YouTube has launched a revamped version of its mobile site designed for HTML5-capable browsers on mobile phones, such as Safari on the Apple iPhone and browsers on Android-based devices - although only for the US.
The update to the YouTube Mobile website means that iPhone users will be able to access better quality YouTube videos from within their phone's browser when they are on a 3G connection.
The new and improved mobile site "incorporates the features and functionality you've come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists, the ability to designate 'favorite,' 'like' or 'unlike' videos directly from your device," YouTube product manager Andrey Doronichev notes in a blog post.
Speed bumps and better UI
"It's really fast," he notes. Which is of course the main thing that YouTube users want on their smartphones, in addition to decent resolution and non-jumpy playback of videos.
The YouTube Mobile product manager also notes that a recent Morgan Stanley report claims that more users will connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within the next five years.
"YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably: playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we're excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006," adds Doronichev.
YouTube Mobile was launched back in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available at the time. In addition to getting a noticeable speed bump, Doronichev notes that new updated version of the mobile site has the following features:
- The user interface incorporates larger, more touch-friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
- It incorporates the features and functionality you've come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists, the ability to designate "favorite," "like" or "unlike" videos directly from your device.
- As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you'll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.
Check it out over at m.youtube.com and check out YouTube's video demo below:
Via YouTube blog
