Yet Another YouTube Homepage Experiment

Last month, I reported that YouTube tested a new interface for the homepage. Now YouTube experiments with a slightly different version of the UI. There are some useful new features, but also many poor choices.

The new experiment puts all the recommended videos in the activity stream and you can no longer restrict the stream to uploads. If you click the "my subscription" link from the sidebar, you can hide the recommendations. YouTube shows too many recommended videos and they're not always relevant.

The right sidebar only shows recommended channels and topics instead of the list of video recommendations. Another change is that you can mouse over an item from the activity stream, click the arrow icon and access options like: "hide this activity", "unsubscribe", "only show uploads from this channel". There are also some new filtering option for subscriptions: click the arrow next to the search box from the left sidebar and you can sort the channels by name, new activity or relevance (the default option).







To try the new experiment, check the updated guide from this post.

Handwriting Recognition in Google Mobile Search

Google's mobile search site has a new feature: handwriting recognition. Instead of using your mobile device's virtual keyboard to type the query, you can just write the letters with your finger.

This feature is disabled by default, but you can enable it on your mobile phone or tablet, by visiting the settings page, tapping "enable" in the "handwrite" section and then saving the settings.

"Say you're standing on a busy street corner, in a bumpy taxi ride, talking with a friend, or sitting on the couch with your tablet. Handwrite enables you to search by just writing letters with your finger most anywhere on your device's screen — there's no keyboard that covers half of the screen and no need for hunt-and-peck typing," suggests Google.

While this feature could be useful for short queries or popular queries that only require entering a few letters and using Google's suggestions, it's more efficient to use the virtual keyboard instead of writing each letter.

Google's Handwrite feature works for iOS5+ devices, Android 2.3+ phones and Android 4.0+ tablets and it's available for 27 languages.

Actively Discussed on Google+

Google shows a new annotation next to some web search results and image search results: "actively discussed on Google+". If you click "show", Google displays a recent Google+ post that includes the URL.

The feature is potentially useful, but it needs some fine-tuning because the Google+ posts aren't necessarily popular, while some search results don't need special annotations.

It's interesting to notice that Google+ popularity is a ranking factor for Google's search engine even when you're not logged in.

YouTube's Carousel Experiment

YouTube tests yet another homepage interface. This time, the interface is called "carousel" and it doesn't show videos from your subscriptions. For some reason, YouTube redirects users to youtube.com/lohp when they try to load the homepage, but this page returns an error if you're not part of this experiment.

The experimental homepage has a simplified layout: it only shows a long list of popular videos from various channels and categories like "news" and "music".

Here's how you can try the latest YouTube experiment. If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+, open youtube.com in a new tab, load:

* Chrome's JavaScript console (Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac)
* Firefox's Web Console (Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac)
* Opera's Dragonfly (Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac)
* Safari's Web Inspector (how to do that?)
or
* Internet Explorer's Developer Tools (press F12 and select the "console" tab)

and paste the following code, which changes a YouTube cookie:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=eKxEWQ3xcc8; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

Then press Enter and close the console. Go to youtube.com/lohp to see the experimental interface.

New Interface for Google Calculator

Google's OneBoxes start to become interactive gadgets. After launching a new mobile weather OneBox and an updated unit conversion OneBox, it's time for Google Calculator to morph into a calculator app.

Just type a query like [73-45] in the search box and you'll get more than just the result. Google also displays a mini-calculator with real buttons for digits, parentheses, arithmetic operations, trigonometric functions, exponential and logarithmic functions.

It's certainly more efficient to just type the expression you want to calculate, but some people might prefer the traditional buttons. They can search for [calculator] and use the new Google Calculator interface.

It's worth noting that Google's calculator doesn't mimic a standard pocket calculator: you can enter a long expression with multiple operations and Google doesn't display the result until you press the "=" button. This way, you can enter "3+3*3" and still get the proper result. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can't press the "1" button and then the "sin" button to compute sin(1), you should press the "sin" button first and then enter the argument of the function. There's no persistent "clear" button, but you can long-press the "delete" button.

{ Thanks, James. }

Use Your Real Name on YouTube

Now that YouTube uses Google Accounts and integrates with Google+, it's a lot easier for Google to bring more Google+ features to YouTube.

You can now use your full name on YouTube. Just go to YouTube's settings page, click "advanced" next to your email address and click "Begin using my full name on YouTube".

What will change after enabling this feature?

1. Your full name from your Google+ profile will replace your username on YouTube.

2. Your channel title and photo will change.

The YouTube username can still be used to log in and the channel URL will stay the same.

Google's goal is to use the same identity on YouTube, Google+ and other Google services so that it can provide an unified experience. For example, other people that know you will find your YouTube videos much more easily if you're using your full name and your photo. YouTube's commmenting system can also improve if people use their real identity.

Obviously, not everyone will want to drop their username, especially if they like/need anonymity or their username is very popular. That's probably the reason why this feature is optional.

A Google spokesperson told LA Times that "YouTube will let people change their usernames back if they decide to start using their full name. (...) New users can still set their YouTube name however they want. The prompt comes up only for users who have a Google+ profile."

"You'll see this option when you upload or comment on YouTube (...). For partners, brands, and organizations, you won't see this just yet. In the coming months we'll be working on new options to give you even more control over your presence on YouTube," informs Google.

{ Thanks, Katty. }

Google Tests an Expanded Knowledge Graph Box

Google tests a new feature of the knowledge sidebar: a link that invites you to "explore more". The Knowledge Graph section doesn't allow Google to show more than 5 related people, books, albums, movies, so the experiment displays more of them below the search box.

For example, when you search for a movie and click "explore more", Google shows more cast members. You can use the arrow icons to switch to a different category.

{ Thanks, Maarten. }