Downloader: YouTube's new Leanback: one-click online video for the lazy TV crowd

Thursday, July 22, 2010

YouTube's new Leanback: one-click online video for the lazy TV crowd

In an age when there's so much online video content that you can basically watch whatever you want, why do so many people still watch plain old TV? YouTube has decided that TV's instant-on nature is what's missing from Web video -- some people don't want to make decisions about which videos to watch, they just want to turn them on like a TV and go. That's where YouTube Leanback, now in beta, enters the equation.

Open up Leanback, and it starts playing immediately, with no user input. As the official YouTube blog describes it: " Videos tailored to your interests play as soon as you visit the site and they play in full screen and high definition, continuously. There's no need to click, search, or browse, unless you want to, of course. Watching YouTube becomes as easy as watching TV. "

Leanback gets content based on what you've watched and subscribed to, and what your Facebook friends have liked (if your YouTube account is connected to your Facebook account). You can also just watch the most popular videos on YouTube, if that's your thing. There's no need to use the mouse, either: it's the left and right buttons to skip, up to search, and down to browse. Basically, you've got the laziest, simplest viewing experience since TV itself. Neat!