So I typically stay away from the hell that is ‘Youtube Drama’ (of course there were those times back in 2014-2015’ish (I think it was), where I was bitching about Dan bitching about AdBlock Plus not giving him money and stuff), but I never once commented about the layout used by Google…. until today.
Yesterday I started seeing changes in the form of the Youtube logo changing font types, but this wasn’t really a big deal as I could still use the website normally. Not today.
It feels like this was an overnight change that happened when I was asleep. Yesterday before I went to bed, everything was normal. And now BAM! UGLY!
First off, those three buttons at the top of videos (Home / Trending / Subscriptions)? Gone. No reason why. Now I have to click on the menu to the left of the Youtube logo to get to the other pages. But this isn’t the worst part…ohh no, it gets much worse. And that’s in the form of watching a video.
Before, everything was good.. well, as good as usability. Now…
1. Black border around the video, and the top bar goes left.
2. The statistics for like/dislike are gone, replaced with a simple Like/Dislike button.
3. I seem to have lost the ability to comment on a video (comment window is gone).
4. Comments no longer show post dates.
The third thing bugs me the most, mainly due to seeing others able to post and I cannot. It’s like I’m not even logged in. It’s very strange.
I really don’t know what to say. Clearly, the idea department of Google were smoking crack when they thought of these changes. I only pray these changes aren’t permanent, because this minimalistic look is going to cause people to leave the website.
Though, I’m surprised Google’s “make Youtube ugly first, don’t tell people why ever” business approach hasn’t already made lots of people to leave.
What, and especially Why are they doing this!? I couldn’t really tell you. I don’t know how they think(though it’s clear their thoughts aren’t in favor of viewers). All I can do is pray they revert these changes immediately. It’s anti-user friendly.
What worries me, is this may not be the end of these undesired, forced changes to their website.
.
EDIT: There’s a way to restore Youtube to what it was yesterday. Simply right click on your avatar on the top right of the page, go down the list and select “Restore Old Youtube”(or something like that). There you can give your opinion (or not). What scared me a bit was seeing “We’re sad to see you go!”.. I’m not ‘going’ anywhere.
After submitting, nearly everything came back. The only thing missing is the three buttons on the homepage at the top, but I’m able to comment again.
So that’s a minor inconvenience.