YouTube (2011)Copied

YouTube spent 2011 rehearsing a new look. In July it opened an experimental redesign codenamed Cosmic Panda to anyone willing to switch it on, TechCrunch reported, promising a new viewing experience, more channel page designs, uninterrupted playback between videos and a stylish new look and feel. TechCrunch was frank about the starting point: for a long time the world's most popular video portal had been remarkably ugly, noisy and dated, although a cleaner watch page in 2010 had helped.

On 1 December 2011 the full redesign arrived. AFP, via the Inquirer, reported from San Bruno that it showcased television-style channels and tighter integration with other Google properties. A YouTube product vice president said the company was trying to marry the best of TV and the best of online, and predicted that the term online video was about to disappear. A product manager called it the largest redesign and largest launch in YouTube's history.

The home page now centred on channels from anyone, from amateurs to studios, with a side panel for finding channels and pinning favourites, and templates for curators. The redesign was built to work across smartphones, tablets and televisions, with an Xbox 360 app shown at the event.

And, almost as an aside, YouTube changed its well-known logo to be more modern and closer in style to other Google services.

CNN reported that, unlike Google's gradual rollouts, YouTube switched the homepage for every user worldwide at once, and summed the change up in one word: channels. The service now saw itself as a descendant of cable television, with millions of channels rather than hundreds. Its user experience director, Margaret Stewart, said the redesign included subtle alignments with Google's visual style, including tweaked logo colours and a soft grey background behind videos. That phrase explains the logo change better than any design note could. It was not a new identity; it was a subsidiary being gently brought into the family.

That aside tells you where power sat. The logo update was not a statement; it was housekeeping, folding a famous independent brand into the Google family look while the real story was a bet on channels and living-room screens. It was the right call. A redesign this large did not need a logo fight as well, and keeping the logo change modest let it land without anyone noticing much, which is what a mature brand should want.