Official U.S. Launch of the New Metacafe
After several weeks of testing, we are excited to officially launch Metacafe’s new design to everyone in the U.S.!
In addition to the new look of the homepage, there are new “hubs” with the latest movie trailers, music videos, and sports highlights. Here’s a bit more detail about each hub:
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Movie Trailers, featuring theatrical and home video releases from every major Hollywood studio including HD videos. |
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Music Videos, featuring top artists and up-and-coming acts in Pop, Rock, R&B, Hip Hop, Country, and Latin. |
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Sports Highlights, featuring non-stop action from the NBA, Fox Sports, and Fuel TV. |
Additionally, we’re still showcasing the best videos submitted by the community in the Today and Popular Videos sections, so don’t worry…the “old” Metacafe isn’t going anywhere.
Rotating Billboard
The most noticeable change is what we call the “Rotating Billboard” at the top of the homepage and hubs, which is designed to quickly show you the freshest videos on Metacafe. You’ll notice one of its coolest features on some of the billboards: a built-in video player:
In the screenshot above, you’ll see that the video player is currently playing a movie trailer for the upcoming animated film, 9, but that there are also options to watch other trailers like Land of the Lost, Fast and the Furious, and more.
Your Homepage
What if you care only about sports videos? You can set the Sports Highlights hub as your default Metacafe homepage by clicking the “Set as my Metacafe homepage” box near the top of the hub. The next time you go to http://www.metacafe.com you will go straight to Sports Highlights. You can do this with any of the hubs or the Today section.
You can easily set your default homepage in any of the hubs or the Today section.
Coming Soon…
We hope you’re excited by these changes at Metacafe. Over the course of the year, we’ll be adding additional content into these new hubs and introducing additional hubs featuring content such as TV clips and video game trailers. We’ll also be launching the new design in other countries outside of the U.S., so stay tuned!
The Metacafe Team
I love the new update it’s awesome. The effort you guys have put into has really made a difference. thank guys
Comment by Felicity Bramble — April 20, 2009 @ 9:21 am
Wow. I’m really excited with this release. thank you very much guys and keep up the good work….
Comment by amy — April 20, 2009 @ 10:08 am
I liked the old page ALOT more – I also used to send new fun videos to friends and family from the old homepage all the time and told a lot of people about Metacafe. Now that the main page has changed it’s filled with old boring music videos, you have nothing new and there is no more easy way to navigate to new videos. This new page is a mess I guess its time to go back to YOUTUBE.
Take a hint from the biggest video site on the net NEVER MAKE DRASTIC AND UNNESSISARY CHANGES TO YOUR HOME PAGE. SIMPLE IS ALWAYS BETTER NOT GLITSY AND COMPLICATED.
Also if you’re going to put a home page together that looks like this make sure you have the videos to back it. You have like 40 music videos and they are almost all OLD. I’m in my late 20’s and I’m calling these videos old – which means you are no longer reaching a younger crowd which will kill your marketing power in Google and Yahoo search pages.
Don’t TANK what you had working for you – Change back to the old style now before it’s too late.
Comment by JayD — April 20, 2009 @ 12:13 pm
awesome! I like the rotating billboard’s idea. Great!
Comment by 3boysinsandiego — April 20, 2009 @ 1:39 pm
Sorry, folks, this stinks. The old format was better for generalized browsing which I prefer. This page is more like a shopping mall.
Comment by paul — April 20, 2009 @ 2:39 pm
yo JayD
go to the Today page – oldschool metacafe right there.
the new site is cool though – sports its fresh and music has some goodies too.
its metacafe and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Comment by Jon Stewart — April 20, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
I love the look but especially love the movie trailers part.
Comment by Chuck — April 20, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
@JayD: as the blog post and Jon pointed out, the Today page is the same page as our old homepage…you can even set it as your default Metacafe page by clicking the “Set as my default Metacafe homepage” checkbox near the top of the page on the right.
Comment by Tim (Metacafe) — April 20, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
cool look. I can’t wait to get a feel of the new metacafe.
Comment by Terry — April 20, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
I liked the old one sooooooo much better. This one is nothing but junk and trash
Comment by Nathaniel — April 21, 2009 @ 7:20 am
The new look is great, people will get used to it..
Comment by Bape Nerd — April 21, 2009 @ 4:32 pm
nice look and I bet it will help you guys make some cash, but I’m kind of disappointed that the user videos have been completely stripped from the home page. Nice that the old pages are still there and can be set as the default.
I feel like there should be at least one strip of popular user uploaded content so it isn’t just a giant ad.
Looks nice though
My 2 cents
Comment by CJ — April 21, 2009 @ 7:46 pm
@CJ: Thanks for the feedback! I wanted to make one clarification – there is a strip for user submitted videos on the homepage called “Viral Videos”. It’s currently at the bottom of the page, but we’ll be experimenting with its location on the homepage throughout the year.
Comment by Tim (Metacafe) — April 22, 2009 @ 4:43 pm
The new look is really fascinating. People will love the new look.
Comment by Tom — April 24, 2009 @ 8:44 pm
This is great! I love movie trailers. Thanks guys!
Comment by Get My Ex Back — April 25, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Kudos, the site looks great.
Comment by Mickey — April 27, 2009 @ 11:49 am
Woww, I am more impressed even. The site has improved! Congratulations.
Comment by srikalidasa — April 28, 2009 @ 6:33 am
The new look so totally rocks, watching trailers is always good parameter before watching the movie thanx you guys…
Comment by Skateboard decks — April 28, 2009 @ 8:54 am
This is amazing, thank you for updating the site, and I cant wait to dive into the new look!!
Comment by Jared — April 28, 2009 @ 8:36 pm
Nicely done on the new site! Love the the feature that allows me to choose what kind of videos I like for my default homepage. Kudos!
Muhd Noor
Comment by Muhd Noor — April 29, 2009 @ 10:14 am
Looks great. You guys have always been doing great job, it is nice to see that you still can improve!
Comment by Allan — April 29, 2009 @ 1:37 pm
Nice release, and the part with the movie trailers rocks ! Keep up the good work guys !
Comment by Thomas — April 30, 2009 @ 5:41 pm
I Love videos on this website. Its my favorite website to watch videos. Thanks for making such a good website.
Comment by House Swap — May 1, 2009 @ 7:43 am
The movie trailers are fantastic.I like the new look.
Comment by Dilip Dabrai — May 1, 2009 @ 8:41 am
Change is always a good thing.I like it.
Comment by Lil Mcdonnell — May 1, 2009 @ 8:48 am
Congrats! The site looks very great. I like it!
Comment by Daisy Hao — May 1, 2009 @ 1:06 pm
I like the new layout a lot! Can’t wait to start using it.
Sean
Comment by Sean — May 2, 2009 @ 3:43 am
There will always be people who will easily adept to changes and others who will scrutinize and even take time before they can actually realize that change is better. As for me, whatever the metacafe team think of what is best for the site, I am on your side. However, it would be also great to ask or have a survey first from the visitors and loyal fans of this site of their opinion before implementing a new one. Since this site is for sure was made for the viewers, visitors and a lot of people around the world.
Comment by David — May 2, 2009 @ 10:01 am
It will take time to get accustomed, but as president says “Change is what we believe in” So great work done!!
Comment by Adjustable Bed Mattress — May 3, 2009 @ 7:36 am
awesome!
Subic Bay
Comment by Subic — May 4, 2009 @ 10:24 am
looks awesome, good job
Comment by mike — May 4, 2009 @ 8:32 pm
Looks different and interestign way to watch videos. I am glad i bumped into this site.
Comment by nanny cams — May 5, 2009 @ 7:15 pm
Wow this is awesome! I really love the new site, you have done a great job.
Thank you
Comment by Fred — May 6, 2009 @ 1:35 am
Love this new look! Great job!
Comment by River7 — May 6, 2009 @ 9:29 am
Pretty good looking design and eye catching.
Congrats on a good looking site.
Tony
Comment by Tony @ sports betting picks — May 8, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
Nice looks but prefer the older version. Change can be hard.
Comment by Paul Easton — May 11, 2009 @ 6:46 am
i enjoyed the older version, but will defintely be getting on board with the upgrade! thanks guys.
Comment by Acaiburner — May 12, 2009 @ 9:27 am
I too prefer the older version, but things gotta change I guess.
Comment by Adam Williams — May 14, 2009 @ 7:53 am
I actually prefer the new version. It looks really good!
Comment by James Taylor — May 16, 2009 @ 7:27 pm
i dont like the new site at all…..i hate movie trailers to begin with…as well with the sports updates….wtf?
all i want to see is people doing crazy stuff…crashes…hurting themselves….bloopers….pranks…odd stuff…..new ideas….just like the old format.
now i have to search for crap….goodbye “Metacafe”
Comment by pepsidruid — May 17, 2009 @ 11:05 am
I also sort of enjoyed the older version a little bit better, but this is not half bad too.
Comment by Chris — May 18, 2009 @ 10:02 am
@pepsidruid: All those videos are still there in the Today section, and you have the option to set it as your homepage if that’s your preference.
Comment by Tim (Metacafe) — May 18, 2009 @ 10:31 am
This change is alright and good job. But I also prefer the old one.
Comment by Deaneh — May 30, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
That is great information…I really like the update and i think it will enhance usability…
Comment by christine — June 11, 2009 @ 6:52 am
There will always be people who will easily adapt to changes and others who will scrutinize and even take time before they can actually realize that change is better. I’m all for it – obviously they are changing it for a reason (because WE asked)…
Comment by marketing — June 11, 2009 @ 6:53 am
I think the homepage is really improving. It is becoming even better.
Comment by Dominic Joelson — June 23, 2009 @ 7:37 am
I really liked the rotating billboard it looks very attractive
Comment by David — June 24, 2009 @ 4:38 am
I like the redesign of the website. Unfortunately today June 30, 2009, I tried to register to the site. For some strange reason your auto responder did not forward me a confirmation e-mail. When I clicked on send reconfirmation again it responded by telling me that my account was invalid.
I attempted again to register but to no avail. Since there is no contact information that I could find I thought this would be the best way to alert you and or your webmaster to correct this problem since it is probably going to cost you money in the long run.
Other than that, I really enjoyed the new format for the site. I look forward to promoting some of my Latin dance videos.
Comment by Zumba — June 29, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
definitely like the new format. i think people that don’t like it feel that way because it’s unfamiliar – then they’ll get used to it.
Comment by skateboarder dude — July 3, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
It’s okay. It’s very bloggy looking. I think the search should be over to the far right where people expect to find it. And the usability could still be improved. For some reason when I hit the tab key it takes me to the top of the page. For the people that don’t like the new design they may have a point. But you can’t stay the same forever. So if it’s not working I’m sure they will fix it.
Comment by Conversion Vans — July 6, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
i’ve only used metacafe a couple times but i have to admit, i like the site’s new look. it’s sharp, snazzy and easy to navigate–i can only imagine what the next redesign will do to the site!
Comment by John C — July 16, 2009 @ 9:08 am
Hey guys, i used to like the old design but the new design is awesome! Love the sneak peek option and the fact you restricted it to only few countries, or else you’ll be wasting lots of bandwidth… The pages are lighter and you used lots of CSS to save on bandwidth…
Wish you good luck!
Comment by telepresence — August 23, 2009 @ 10:54 am
Love the design! Very crisp and light…. the right kind of combination for heavy traffic websites… your web designer is smart…
Comment by krill oil — August 27, 2009 @ 12:50 am
We as a company were finding your “billboard” ad unit as one of a kind ad platform with so much flexibility. The custom Flash execution, the in-unit video player you guys are great at balancing user end experience and advertisers. Keep up the good work! Hope your investment gives you great returns for hard work..
Comment by fresh breather — September 21, 2009 @ 9:23 pm
nice look and I bet it will help you guys make some cash, but I’m kind of disappointed that the user videos have been completely stripped from the home page. Nice that the old pages are still there and can be set as the default.
Comment by Yoga beginner — September 24, 2009 @ 3:53 am
looks very slick. … I think it will enhance usability.
Comment by shoprider sovereign — October 2, 2009 @ 4:21 am
Looks nice as it is. Thanks for the great work!
Comment by Juicy couture — October 23, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
Really nice when will this be available for other countries … as it looks it`s much better than youtube. can`t wait
Comment by saul — November 10, 2009 @ 5:12 pm