YouTube's interface, while functional, doesn't offer a ton of form. iDesktop.tv is a new Web service that offers both form and function. The service sports a customizable interface for YouTube videos, and allows you to view videos while browsing previews, move videos, resize them, minimize them, and download them directly to your computer in an interface that makes surfing videos at YouTube way more fun than it ought to be.
iDesktop.tv is essentially a skin for YouTube that gives you more flexibility and control over the way you watch YouTube videos. iDesktop's interface is skinnable and there are a dozen themes you can select from to give the site a little personal flare. Granted, most of the themes look alike, but it's nice to be able to customize the interface a bit. If you want your choices and favorites saved, you can sign up for a free account at iDesktop to save your preferences, favorites, and other settings.
iDesktop displays about a dozen YouTube videos in its default view, and you can move the slider at the bottom of the page to change the magnification on the videos in the preview list. Each video in the preview list displays a screen-capture, the title, length, star rating, and a Play button, if you want to watch it right away. By default, iDesktop plays all videos in standard YouTube size right there in the preview window, so when you click Play, a Flash window opens inside of the browser and the video starts playing.
You can control the view from there, pop it out into a new window, maximize it, or minimize it to the service's "taskbar" at the bottom of your browser window using controls on iDesktop's mini-player. iDesktop also allows you to easily resize, zoom, and change the aspect ratio of the videos you view, and you can view multiple videos at the same time.
There are also buttons at the top of each preview that allow you to open the video in a new player, immediately download the video as an .avi, .mpg, or other movie format, download the video as a Flash video, e-mail it to others, or save it to your favorites. iDesktop is designed to let you download videos as well as view them, so several tools on the site are dedicated to converting the video and allowing you to download the videos either as a Flash video or another movie format of your choice.
The iDesktop.tv developers say they wanted the service to have a real desktop app feel within your Web browser, and they wanted to support as many browsers as possible. iDesktop currently supports Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari. The service's search utility is robust as well, and makes it easy to browse and find YouTube videos. You can also search individual categories, a feature missing at YouTube. iDesktop has a number of features that I wish were over at YouTube, and can even hook into your YouTube account to pull down your favorites and playlists.
iDesktop.tv works exclusively with YouTube videos, although I'd love to see the service add support for videos from other Web video sites. The people behind the service wanted to create an interface for YouTube that was customizable and offered more functionality than the original site, and they succeeded. iDesktop's interface may be a little cluttered, but it packs in a lot of features. The service happily accepts the "Web 2.0" label, but in this case that's not a bad thing.
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