Gridtube Modifies YouTube’s Search Layout

The search results layout on the video hosting website YouTube has a few usability issues. When you search on YouTube, you are presented with a long list of scrolling results. For each result a small low res thumbnail image is shown prominently, and next to that the video’s title, part of the description and a few other information including the uploader and the number of views it has received yet. Especially the need to scroll down the list and the low resolution preview images face criticism.

The Firefox add-on GridTube modifies Youtubes search layout in several ways to make it more user friendly. It comes with two new viewing modes that change the search results listing.

The small and large grid mode do away with the standard layout. They place the thumbnail images next to each other in a grid, so that it is no longer necessary to scroll down on larger screen resolutions. The only other information displayed – by default that is – is the video title and play time.

The different modes, and the information they display, are selected at the top right of the screen. Here it is possible to switch to the large grid view mode, or the standard list mode. The large grid mode displays larger video thumbnails. The list view mode on the other hand simply displays YouTube’s default layout, but with the option to turn off ads on the page.

You may notice that all three modes display higher quality video thumbnails. That’s useful if you do not like the low resolution video thumbnails that YouTube usually displays on search result pages.

Both small and large grid modes can be clicked again to display additional information for each video. When enabled, the uploader, views, quality and time since the upload are displayed as well.

You will notice that videos open in a new tab in the browser. This setting and the higher thumbnail quality can be disabled in the options of the add-on. The only other option there lets you select a default quality level for videos.

GridTube can be installed directly at the Mozilla Firefox add-ons repository.

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Grid Move divides your desktop into grids About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday February 11, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, youtube

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Is Google Making Another Homepage Layout Change?

Google is running yet another design test on their homepage currently. With the frequency of layout changes increasing, it feels as if the search giant does not really know what they really want anymore. As of right now, at least two designs are life for all users. First the single button menu interface with a gray header area, and then the black bar.

Yesterday a third design was spotted that combines the black bar with the menu structure of the single menu bar.

The new bar displays Google’s most popular services directly again on the bar for quick access. The More link leads to additional services. Users of the gray bar design will notice that the black bar has been moved on top of the design. Everything else, with the exception of the Google logo menu has remained the same.

The Google Operating System blog has posted instructions on how to enable the new Google bar design.

Open google.com in your web browser of choice.In Google Chrome, press Ctrl-Shift-JIn Mozilla Firefox press Ctrl-Shift-KIn Internet Explorer press F12 and select consolePaste the following code into the form

document.cookie="PREF=ID=381502750b6e9119:U=aaee74aefea7315a:FF=0:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1328391998:LM=1328392000:S=yPtlCgLbEnezu5b4; path=/; domain=.google.com";window.location.reload();

Press enter and close the console again.Local users need to replace the domain in the information (google.com) with the country code domain, e.g. (google.de)

The page should refresh automatically, and you should see the new layout on the Google page. Please note that it will only be active for as long as the cookie remains on your system.

Users who want to return to the old Google homepage layout can repeat the steps, by loading the following code in the console.

document.cookie="PREF=; path=/; domain=.google.com";window.location.reload();

My personal opinion? Google should give users more choice when it comes to the services that are displayed on the homepage. I’m for instance not using Google News, so why should it be there that prominently on the page? Google furthermore needs to select a design and stick with it, instead of confusing users with different designs and layouts. Some users, depending on the browser they use to access Google, have reported that they are seeing different layouts on the same computer.

What’s your take on this, and what’s your favorite bar so far?

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday February 5, 2012 -
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