Mobile YouTube given global HTML5 overhaul

 

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By Stewart Mitchell and Reuters

Posted on 24 Aug 2010 at 13:42

Google has made its HTML5-enabled mobile YouTube service available in Europe as part of a series of upgrades the company says will improve the video experience for viewers on the move.

The upgraded site went live in the US last month, but booming growth for the mobile service globally has forced the company to extend the service across multiple regions and mobile phone platforms.

“We tried to make it snappy, but run in any browser across platforms," said Andrey Doronichev, YouTube's mobile product manager.

The site uses the video tag from HTML5, which lets video be embedded and played without requiring a media player. The next generation of HTML is supported by Safari and Firefox and expected to appear in IE9 when it is released later this year.

The mobile YouTube site is also optimised for touch devices, with large icons making navigation easier.

According to Google, the update should also improve the service when accessed over 3G networks or slow Wi-Fi because users can switch to a lower-quality video over slower connections.

Google said YouTube traffic to mobile devices was up 160% in 2009 compared to 2008. Across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the UK consumes the most YouTube videos on mobile devices, followed by France, Italy, Netherlands and Switzerland.