YouTube updates mobile site, and makes iPhone app look like old hat

Video site YouTube has created a new version of its mobile site, bringing new features, and designed to perform well on browsers on the latest handsets.

The company, which is owned by Google, has seen mobile uptake of its offerings explode in recent years, with video playbacks up 160 per cent in 2009 over the previous year, and m.youtube.com now getting in excess of a hundred million video plays every day. The update is intended to keep the mobile site current, offering improved performance for browsers which support HTML5, including Safari on the iPhone and pretty much anything on an Android handset.

According to YouTube's blog, the new mobile site is 'really fast', with a user interface which incorporates 'larger, more touch-friendly elements', and including more of the features which users have come to expect from the main YouTube site. These include the option to create playlists and designate favourites, directly from your mobile.

The post also appears to take the opportunity to have a quick jab at Apple's iPhone YouTube app, saying: "As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you’ll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently."  And at the launch,  TechCruch reports that YouTube product manager Andrey Doronichev explained that Apple's YouTube app is really not optimised for 3G streaming rates, but rather for the first iPhone's EDGE streaming, resulting in poorer quality video over 3G.