"Bigger Isn't Always Better... But in This Case, We Believe It Is", says the YouTube team who yesterday announced the launch of its widescreen player.
The hugely-popular video-sharing website has had its page width increased to 960 pixels to allow for the upgrade to a wide-aspect flash player. YouTube hopes it will provide "a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience", and the long-awaited transition to widescreen finally brings the service up to the standards of rivals such as Vimeo and Hulu.
The switch to widescreen came as something of a surprise to the millions of YouTube users, with nothing more than a three-paragraph blog announcement explaining the change. Users who wish to continue uploading 4:3 material will be able to do so, and YouTube's player will display an unaltered image with black bars either side.
Despite the promise of improved quality for user-created content, the real reasoning for widescreen ability may be YouTube's ambitions to feature full-length movies on its website. It is believed that MGM Studios will soon sign an agreement with Google and become presumably the first of many big-name movie studios to air its feature-length material online.
