Google’s Cosmic Panda is an Updated YouTube UI Preview

Google’s video service YouTube sees a few updates every now and then. The aim is to try and enhance viewing experience. There have been plugins and scripts for browsers that try and make it better by darkening the screen and hiding all the text content on it. Google has launched a new viewing mode codenamed Cosmic Panda that's available on youtube.com/cosmicpanda. It’s free to everyone and can be viewed by clicking on the Try it Out button on that page. The mode changes the interface of the flash player component itself with completely new buttons.

A fresh new interface

Comments can be seen listed below the video. Clicking on the Suggested buttons slides open a large listing of related videos. A neat new feature is the ability to change the quality of the video on the player itself and then choose a different viewing area. Typically, YouTube changes the image quality everytime you open a larger version of it. Real time comments are also available. It’s not just the video viewing page, but also the profile pages. Featured videos on profiles are shown as large, wide thumbnails instead of the tiny versions on the default interface. Having used it for a while, it’s easy to say that the Cosmic Panda interface is a good step up from the existing interface and we’re hoping Google switches to it, full time.