viewsAt first glance, you’ll notice that the new YouTube video page layout has a cleaner look, making for a better user experience. But the best upgrade, which can easily be missed, is the new analytics section for each individual video.

How do you access the analytics for a video? From the video page, just click on the “views” link located under the bottom right-hand corner of the video window. Once clicked, the window will expand to display the in-depth analytics. The most important piece of info YouTube is now offering has to be the feature displaying key links/actions/awards the video has received. These key events are displayed across a timeline, so if you are suddenly seeing an upswing in views of your videos, you’ll know why. Take a look at the image below of the analytics for CD Baby artist James Dupre’s video for A Hero in My Eyes.

video-stats

Another feature change worth noting is the elimination of the star rating system. From this point on viewers will click on the thumbs up button if they “like” the video and the thumbs down if they don’t. This change also serves to eliminate the stars that previously displayed over the video preview image.