Yesterday YouTube unveiled the newest way to view the sites content, simply called YouTube XL.
Basically YouTube XL is a redesigned version of the YouTube website, optimized for televisions and large computer monitors.
The best part about YouTube XL is, outside of Flash, nothing else is required for it to run. You can view YouTube XL directly in your browser window.
The first thing that caught my eye about YouTube XL is just how clean the interface is. It’s very minimalist. Currently there are NO advertisements, NO comments, NO suggested videos or any extra content outside of the videos themselves.
(Don’t get to excited yet, as I’m sure YouTube has plans for advertising on YouTubeXL.)
To give you a better idea of how YouTube XL looks on a television, I’ve taken the following two photos in the Murdok breakroom. The first is the “Plain Jane” YouTube and the second is YouTube XL.
From the two photos above you can see that YouTube XL is by far better suited for televison viewing.
On a side note, the release of YouTube XL comes on the heels of Hulu’s release of Hulu Desktop, a downloadable application that allows users to watch all of Hulu’s content with easier navigation for televisions.
With both YouTube & Hulu releasing similar services mere days apart, it’s clear that another “war” is possibly brewing.
But, if YouTube wants to truly compete with Hulu, they need to work on obtaining some high-quality content.
