It didn't take much to predict that this move was in the pipeline, but YouTube has finally officially launched a new portion of its site dedicated to HD, creating the webs largest archive of HD content. A move that will no doubt make them even more popular and, seeing as they already account for 25% of all Google searches, the video portal is hardly in need of new friends. According to TechCrunch, in the US alone, YouTube generated 25.4% of the 2.73 billion Google searches.At the moment the videos are not defaulted to HD quality so the user has to click on the HD link below the video. There is a pop up box that appears when the HD option is available to inform the user of the new HD option and pointing to the 'Watch in HD' link below the video.
YouTube has also created an HD option in the 'videos' YouTube authority page, increasing the HD presence. To improve the user experience on the site, the HD movies are also now being played in a large video player that doesn't go into the often irritating full screen mode but does take up much of the screen.
YouTube has been busy in other areas too - it also launched a set of portals encompassing sectors like News, Music and Movies to collate the most popular videos in each sphere. With these new improvements, the sexier Movie features in particular, YouTube is asserting its position and hitting out at rivals such as Hula.
The main criticism that seems to be popping up online is a fairly minor one - many blogs and forums are suggesting YouTube introduce a 'darken' button to make the videos appear brighter on the screen and for it to be a more TV-like experience. It begs the question, how long will it be until TV manufacturers are seriously struggling to compete with online viewing options?
