I was sent a YouTube video link tonight and when I pulled up the page in FireFox to watch it, I noticed that the entire YouTube experience had changed to a much more lightweight, user-friendly, and FAST interface.

Here’s a look:

(Click to enlarge)

Fueled by Ajax, clicking any link on the video page resulted in instant gratification. If you want to see more videos from the user who posted the one you’re watching, a quick drop-down menu is available (seen in the screenshot above). Searching for a new video shrinks the video you’re watching on the left side, displaying the search results instantly on the right, like so:

(Click to enlarge)

There’s also the addition of Like/Dislike (thumbs up / thumbs down) buttons.

I wondered if the interface change was global, so I pulled up the same video I was watching in Safari and got the old, standard YouTube UI. I’m not sure why FireFox is giving me the new interface, but I’d like to keep it.