YouTube wants users to watch more videos and to make it more like watching television. The Google-owned video-sharing site unveiled a new feature on July 7 called YouTube Leanback, which provides a large screen viewing experience on a computer and will also be integrated into the upcoming Google TV.
"YouTube Leanback is all about letting you sit back, relax and be entertained," YouTube said in a blog post. "Videos tailored to your interests play as soon as you visit the site and they play in full screen and high definition, continuously," it said. "There's no need to click, search, or browse," YouTube said. "Watching YouTube becomes as easy as watching TV."
YouTube Leanback, which is available at youtube.com/leanback, makes watching a video on a computer screen similar to watching television.
A selection of videos begins playing immediately at YouTube Leanback based upon a YouTube user's settings and preferences.
The arrow keys act as controls for the service instead of a mouse. Google TV, developed in partnership with technology titans Sony, Intel and Logitech, fuses the Internet with television programming and was unveiled by Google in May.
In addition to providing a TV-like experience on the computer, YouTube Leanback is designed to optimise playback of videos on Google TV. YouTube on July 7 also unveiled an updated version of its mobile site, m.youtube.com, which it said is faster and incorporates features such as the option to create playlists and to designate "favourite" videos.
YouTube said its mobile site was now receiving more than 100 million video playbacks a day, about the same number as YouTube.com was streaming in 2006. "As the world continues to go mobile, we think this is a great improvement for users who want a more consistent YouTube across many devices, no matter where they are," YouTube said.
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