Youtube, the world’s largest online video service has implemented a major revision to the way it is organized, adding sections such as ‘music’, ‘education’, ‘live’ and ‘news’ to the earlier categories of ‘videos’ and ‘movies’.
Under the structure, Youtube users can now catch ‘live’ broadcasts – both of specific events as well as of TV channels, or catch the latest video news under its ‘news’ section.
The ‘education’ tab gives users access to documentaries and online courses, many of which are provided by major universities.
Although most of these types of content, including live TV retransmission and music videos, were available on Youtube earlier, the service seems to be making them easier to access by categorizing them and presenting them under tabs.
The change in layout can also be seen as a move by Youtube to adapt to the changing web-environment and move out of its initial ‘positioning’ as a place for youngsters to share home-made videos.
The first such move was made when Youtube created a separate movies section – home to a collection of movies officially licensed to Youtube for online exhibition.
It had also removed its 10-minute restriction on the length of the videos that users could upload to the site, opening the floodgates to longer-duration and often higher-quality content such as documentaries.
Youtube, owned by Google, had previously got into partnerships with content companies in an apparent effort to supply its users with legitimate sources of ‘produced’ entertainment such as music videos and movies.
The new move is seen as a step in the same direction – bringing broadcasters of TV channels on to the platform. One of the most prominent TV channels to ‘broadcast’ live on Youtube is Al Jazeera English.
The ‘news’ segment, meanwhile, gives a collection of the top news items from Youtube’s news TV partners.