Putting the "updates" in "here are some updates"

More channel updates have been released since our last post:

• Honors are back
• Video thumbnails are now a little larger based on feedback
  
• More interaction options underneath the video player, including a more prominent link to the standard "watch" page
  
• You can now feature a video by URL
• Plenty of bug fixes (e.g. most people with buggy / broken layouts should now be fixed)
  

A few of the things we're looking at, based on your feedback:

• Transparency options (this is a bit tricky to do, so no promises)
• Ability to rate & comment on the video from the channel
• Sort controls for uploads (especially most viewed)
• Counts for the number of videos in each section
• Letting you show the list of your playlists as your "Featured Content Set"
  
• Order controls
• Making URLs autolink
  
• And, of course, lots of bug fixes thanks to your reports (including letting you go back to featuring your latest video once you've featured by URL, showing annotations in the featured video, and the "infinite circle" problem where videos don't load when you scroll down - thanks Chris, Patrick, muzik4machines, and others)
  

And, for partners that have asked - yes, ad support is coming soon too.

Keep the awesome feedback and bug reports coming,

-Brian

Changing the channel

Okay! Things are moving along - your feedback has been invaluable and we've made a number of changes to the channel beta over the past few weeks in response:

• The subscribe button is now yellow again :)
• You can now choose a featured video
• Lots and lots of bug fixes (and slyth66, your channel should be good now!)
• You can now link directly to a specific video & a specific playlist on your channel - just copy and paste the URL you see while playing the video you'd like to link to - here's an example from vlogbrothers' channel
  

Some other things that are coming soon:

• Bigger thumbnails & fonts on the right hand side - we're going to try this out, thanks to your feedback that the list of videos might have been just a little too small
  
• Honors
  
• Some more interactivity underneath the currently playing video - we've especially heard your feedback that you'd like comments to be better integrated
• Other minor bug fixes
  

We've also added a few more channels to our list of "Our favorite new channel designs" - check them out on the right hand side of the blog.

Finally, we're happy to announce that we're getting closer to a full release to all users - and you can now opt-in to the channels beta by simply visiting the old Channel Design page. So, the question is: What's left that you absolutely-must-have-on-your-channel-or-else-you'll-totally-lose-it?! Let us know in the comments!

-Brian