YouTube, the most popular video portal currently (with Hulu breathing down its neck), has recently launched its WebTV version available for TV sets or computer monitors. While not a huge innovation, but rather a redesign of its standard web interface into a Flash based multimedia tool, YouTube XL does though look and feel like a native WebTV application. Look and feel aside, YouTube XL appears to be working on almost any device with a screen and an Internet connection, be it a PC, an Internet connected TV or even a Play Station 3.
YouTube XL also packs in a significant WebTV experience, allowing its users to control the interface remotely, be it through a wireless keyboard or through a Gmote (a third party application that works as a remote control and is running on Android phones). The interface looks quite clean, devoid of any advertisement, at least for the moment.
With Hulu launching its Hulu Desktop application not so long ago and with both giants already dwelling into the mobile world, it is clear that both companies are leading the front edge of the interactive video industry through media convergence rather than settling for a single broadcast medium. Both YouTube and Hulu have now closed the display medium loop, being now available on all three screens of their users: PC, TV and mobile.
via TechCrunch.
