Why is the page being redesigned?

The overreaching goal of the video page redesign is simplification and ease of use. Videos are the main focus of YouTube, but over time the “stuff” surrounding each video (actions, comments, stats, more videos, etc.) cluttered the essencial [essential] experience. This redesign is about going “back to basics”, re-focusing attention on what you came to YouTube for — the video! — and bringing order and clarity to the actions around it.

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?&answer=172148

The statistics are nice, albeit creepy to think Google has this information. I’m not a fan of interface overhauls because it forces users to have to adapt – the new interface needs to be more intuitive than the previous.

A nice feature is that if you’re currently watching a video and decide to move away from it by searching for another video, it’ll keep playing on the left. Unfortunately that leaves less space for the search results and the author of the video is no longer highlighted.