YouTube Leanback goes live

YouTube tonight formally rolled out YouTube Leanback. The layout previewed at Google I/O in May is designed for 10-foot viewing on a Google TV device or anything where a long viewing distance and a limited set of controls are likely. The interface scraps the comments and many of the other visuals while making many common features available through non-mouse shortcuts.

The design still works with a traditional control layout, though for now it still requires Flash. Viewers on the regular web should see Leanback available tonight. Google TV hardware owners will have the option of setting devices like the Logitech Revue or Sony Internet TV to use Leanback the first time they load YouTube from the regular interface. The first Google TV equipment arrives from Sony over the course of the next week.

By Electronista Staff