Rather than innovate, when you have a site which is head and shoulders above all the competition, both in terms of usability and traffic, is it better to just copy them and be done with it?

Regular visitors to online video sharing service Revver will notice some major changes now active on the site.

Now, with its new layout and features, Revver is looking more like the most popular video site, YouTube (but with less bold colors), which is currently in the process of being redesigned.

Making much better use of space, the Revver website manages to pack more videos and more information onto the homepage while maintaining a simple and uncluttered arrangement.

Making Revver Easier To Use

Alex Black, community manager at Revver stated:

“We just launched the newest version of Revver.com, and it includes some big improvements and rad new features,”

“…Less empty space, more videos, and the addition of categories and featured sections make it a lot easier to find and enjoy the best of Revver.”

What visitors will not immediately notice is that the entire site is now built on Django, after being completely rewritten by developers, which should help make the service faster and more reliable.

On the Revver homepage, visitors will now see multiple widgets that display top videos such as the ‘Most Watched’ and ‘Editor’s Picks.’ The new categories page resembles this same look, except for the fact that the widgets denote each category. 

At the new video browse page, users will find the ability to organize video listings by most-watched, highest rated, and most commented videos, as well as by date range.

In the user dashboard, visual changes are also present as well as new features. Users can now track their videos by the status throughout the upload and review, use a new one-click video editing feature, as well as make use of the new user-to-user messaging system.

YouTube Like Video Responses

Similar to YouTube, Revver now also features video responses, which allow anyone to upload and post a new video response or turn an existing user video into a response. “We haven’t added moderation to responses yet, but it’s coming, and spammers beware — each video can only be a response to ONE other video.”

In addition to all of this, Revver has even taken the time to offer more to advertisers also, as the site now “offers more opportunities to engage with Revver’s diverse creative and user communities.” 

With Revver 2.0, advertisers can now sponsor video collections such as ‘Most Watched’ or even purchase banner ads on category landing pages (such as Sports) and on the landing pages of content creators.

Kevin Wells, CEO of Revver said:

“With enhanced discovery, viewing, and community-building features, Revver.com 2.0 makes it even easier for content creators and advertisers to engage audiences online,”

“This release extends our commitment to creating the best possible platform for sharing and monetizing high-quality videos effectively.”

Conclusions

Revver has a lot of new changes, and is now visually much better looking than both the current YouTube look and the upcoming redesign. 

Although the two services now have much more in common, Revver is much easier on the eyes and has also long offered better benefits in terms of revenue potential for publishers.

What do you think of Revver 2.0? Is the design too much like YouTube or is this a basic layout to be expected from video services now?

Michael Garrett is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com

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