It looks like a change is on the horizon for YouTube. Riding high on the success of its material design guidelines, Google appears to be testing a new website layout for the video sharing platform.
Considering YouTube is the second most visited website on the internet (only trailing behind Google itself), it's no surprise that Google is taking its time to make sure the site looks fresh and remains as functional as possible.
However it's possible to see how the revamped site looks so far. Thanks to a Reddit user posting instructions of how to unearth the makeover, users can head over to YouTube right now and get a taste of what to expect.
To see how YouTube could look in the near future, simply follow these five steps.
- Go to https://www.youtube.com/?gl=US
- Open the developer tools (Ctrl+Shift+I)
- Go to the 'Resources' tab and delete the VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE cookie for the youtube domain
- Go to the console and define the VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE cookie using the following command:document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=Qa1hUZu3gtk;path=/;domain=.youtube.com";
- Reload the page
In terms of mechanics, YouTube remains the same. But the look of the site is now much cleaner and gives the videos more room to show off. Selected videos dominate the screen and feel less threatened by the suggestion sidebar. Speaking of which, the homepage is no longer cluttered by the panel of categories and links usually found on the left-hand side.
Even the YouTube logo appears to have taken a step back to let the content lead the way. It remains to be seen if the design will remain as clean and minimalist as it currently appears, but we should expect to see a finalised redesign roll out in the near future.