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March 1, 2008

Personalized YouTube Homepage

YouTube tests a new homepage that is customizable and centered on your activities. Instead of displaying the same content for all YouTube users, the new homepage looks different, depending on your preferences and your activities. Here's what's new:

* recommended videos, a feature that relies on your previous activity: favorite videos, subscribed channels
* latest from your subscriptions: 12 videos from 3 of your subscribed channels
* friend activity: a list of videos uploaded, favorited or rated by your YouTube contacts. This information is displayed only if your contacts added it to their public profiles.
* inbox: messages, friend invites, received videos.
* statistics about your videos (total views, subscribers) and your activity (subscriptions, comments).


"The goal with all of this is to gauge people's interest in having a YouTube that's tailored to the individual. Ultimately, we want to get you one step closer to the videos you'll enjoy most every time you come to the site," explains YouTube.

To try the new homepage, log in to your YouTube account and then go to http://www.youtube.com/iyt.

24 comments:

  1. why can't I send an email link from Youtube to my friends anymore???

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  2. Does the link to opt into the new format still work? I tried and nothing happens.

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  3. @Anonymous:
    You need to log in first.

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  4. I tried customizing my homepage and nothing happens..the page looked like how it is shown here but now it only shows one promoted video and the rest of the page is blank...

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  5. Johanna the same things happeening to me... :S

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  6. Anonymous and Johanna, I have the same problem.... Do you know of anyway to change this back?

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  7. I have exactly the same problem as johanna - clicking the 'Customize your homepage' link refreshes the page and shows a different promoted video, and the rest of the page is blank, aside from that yellow box to the right of the screen. It's been like this for a couple of days now, and there have definitely been new videos from the people I subscribe to during that time that should have showed up on my homepage.

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  8. The link for customizing YouTube's homepage is http://www.youtube.com/my_homepage_content. If you are logged in, you should see a list of modules that can be added to the page: recommendations, featured videos, statistics etc.

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  9. Lonut Alex Chitu that didn't help the problem.

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  10. There's probably a bug that breaks the page for some accounts. My personalized YouTube page works just fine. You can access the sections that are usually displayed on the homepage by clicking on the "account" drop-down from the top of the page: you should see a menu with links to your videos, subscriptions, favorites. The featured videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/browse?s=rf.

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  11. I've checked, and I am indeed logged in - I can manage my messages and do other account-related stuff with no problem.

    http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6721/screenshotpu4.jpg

    That is a screenshot of my current YouTube homepage; clicking 'Customize your homepage' refreshes the page, but all that changes is the 'Promoted video'.

    I've cleared my browser history and emptied all the temporary files/logged out and back in/disabled NoScript and Adblock (all at the same time), and I still get the same blank page.

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  12. I have the same hompage problem

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  13. It's working now, and I have my page all set up. :)

    If someone from here was responsible for reporting this bug, thank you very much - chewing my way through their help system, only to find no way to contact them for unknown site issues was frustrating.

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  14. at first it wouldn't work when i clicked the "customise" button. but i just relogged into youtube and it started working, so its fixed and the homepage looks quite cool now

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  15. Now, what I'd really want is removing the stupid promoted videos, but it won't let me. Figures... -.-

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  16. I just registered an account with Youtube and personalized it. i like the look of it.

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  17. Can't get the bloody page to show anything in ENGLISH. Only Chinese or Japanese. Used to be flags at the top--no more. What is going on with the language problem. Even tried to log in to the uk.youtube.com but still in Chinese???

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  18. Click on the second link next to YouTube's logo and you should see a list of languages, including English (UK). YouTube separated the country from the interface language, so there are two distinct options.

    Here's the direct link for the UK YouTube in English (UK):
    http://uk.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&persist_hl=1</a

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  19. How do I go back to the old one?
    (looks like the one when u log out)

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  20. I HATE the new Personalized Home page. I just sent an email to find an OPT OUT of it. I have to clear tracking cookies JUST TO GET NORMAL HOME PAGE. The personalized one sucks!!! "The goal is for the people?" No I don't think so as I know many people WHO have expressed in Youtubes own forums how we hate it. It is a crappy system!!!

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  21. LMAO I couldn't even post with my own google account here I had to post anonymous. Nice.

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  22. The new homepage is disgusting looking cared to the old one. Its unorganized and much harder to navigate around. I hate the new Youtube.

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  23. I cleared my cache and cookies, and went back to youtube.com and it didnt work. I logged out and back in, and still the same weird blank homepage. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME?!?!?!

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  24. No, just no.
    If it isn't broken, don't fuck with it.

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