With the cost of launching an online video web site becoming less expensive all the time, companies are continually testing and revamping their sites to better service their viewers; Yahoo (Yahoo) is no different.
Karin Gilford, general manager of Yahoo Entertainment said concerning their recent site revamping: "This is a complete bottoms-up overhaul. Every last pixel is new."
While Yahoo's video service is growing - last year they had 6 million unique visitors for October, while this year it increased to 7.5 million, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Some things it can teach us is how they've changed their pages. For instance, they now have an embedded video player on each page so the user isn't subject to a separate player being launched. They've found that viewers like to remain on the page while they watch their video and search for other things there; they don't like to be forced to jump around. This is something to keep in mind at all times with our users.
Like any quality Web site, they're also working on making the user experience even better. Something we all need to continually test and get feedback on. In the case of video, it's no longer considered a part of many pieces on YahooTv, but is now being presented as the centerpiece of the page.
Another interesting feature they've added is that when you click on a show in the grid, it will take you to a page that has video clips of that show, a photo gallery, and artwork. This is contrary to what a lot of sites that offer a lot of text as well. Time will tell if that's a good move or not. It'll be interesting to see if that works for them.
Another addition to the site is that users followed around the site, and a personalized experience developed in relationship to their interests.
The site has improved a lot, we'll see if it's enough to get users to visit them a lot more and make them their No. 1 video site of choice.
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