YouTube Video Manager Gets An Update & A Facelift

YouTube always seems to group their major announcements in little bunches. Hot on the heels of the brand new site-wide redesign, they've just announced another big change for YouTube creators. Today they announced a new YouTube Video Manager that has a new look, some new features, and an overall streamlined approach.

The New YouTube Video Manager

Right off the bat, you can tell that a major reason for this update is to match the look and feel of the new YouTube design from a week ago. Just take a look at the before and after examples they offer (you can click the image to see a larger version):

The editing tools have been given the same updated look:

But don't be too distracted by the new look, because the new Video Manager has new features beyond just looks:

• The navigation bars have been simplified in an attempt to help you reach the tools you want more quickly.
• There are now icons for videos, indicating things like privacy status, monetization status, and publish status.
• Badges (which sounds to me like another way of saying icons) for whether your video is HD, Creative Commons, and captioned.

Okay, so maybe most of the new features are small-ish, but they could have a big impact. Easier navigation makes for more productive video creating and marketing. And the icons and badges should help provide quick visual indicators you might need when scanning through your videos. They're not gigantic changes, but they should be enough to help you find and do things faster.

And that kind of makes sense when considered with the new design of the YouTube Video Manager, and how it matches the overall new YouTube design--which is clearly all about helping you find what you want and need more quickly.

Well, video creators... what do you think of the new YouTube Video Manager?