The new YouTube: Simpler, more like TV

Ooh la la! YouTube just got what it's referring to as a "fresh coat of digital paint," and that's making quite a difference. The newly redesigned video-sharing site sports a cleaner, simpler layout with a focus on channels — which makes it feel more TV-like than ever.

According to the official YouTube blog, the new design is supposed to make it easier to find and follow channels, browse recommendations, customize your homepage feed, link YouTube to your Google+ or Facebook accounts, and more.

The YouTube homepage is where most of the changes happened. It places the "homepage feed" — which was launched earlier in the year — smack-dab in the middle of things and pushes you to consider the site as a collection of channels and programs (rather than a pile of individual videos).

Of course, while the homepage appears to have been the focus of the redesign, the site as a whole has been tweaked to offer more consistency. There are consistent backgrounds, bigger thumbnails, and a streamlined "watch" page.

You can check out how all of that looks in action in YouTube's demo video below.

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