YouTube may be testing changes to its navigation design, according to reader Eric Calouro. While visiting the site’s homepage today, he grabbed a screenshot of a previously unseen design that puts a large search box at the top of the page, removes the “Broadcast Yourself” tagline and de-emphasizes all menu items. In other words: the site looks increasingly like a video search engine.

However, the change has not been rolled out to all users: Eric’s is the only report we have so far, seen in Google Chrome on the PC – in Firefox, he sees the old design.

Whether it gets a full rollout remains to be seen, but such a move would continue Google’s moves to put search at the center of the YouTube experience. Watch this space.

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The research keeps confirming our suspicion: online video is still growing at a rapid pace. A new YouTube generation is quickly emerging as alternatives to cable flourish and new mobile technology makes it easier than ever to watch online video.

The latest research, a report from Pew Internet, reveals a bit more information about this trend, including this intriguing stat: men engage in online video activities more than women. On top of that, Pew reports that 62% of American web users now consume video online, making it a more popular activity than social networking.

Pew Report

The Pew Internet research report sampled 2,253 adults on a wide variety of questions related to their online video experience. The result is a 14 page report chock-full of information (embedded below), so instead of trying to explain each part, we’ve decided to highlight our top 7 statistics instead:

1. 62% of all American adult Internet users have watched video online at some point.

2. A full 89% of Internet users 18-29 have seen video on YouTube, Hulu, or another social video website. We do wonder who those other 11% are, though. This is up from 72% a year ago.

3. 35% of Internet users have viewed a full TV show or movie online. That bodes well for Hulu; it has a lots of room for further growth.

4. Online video is more popular than social networking. While 62% of American web users use online video sites, only 46% have ever used a social network and 11% have ever added a status update on sites like Twitter or Facebook.

5. On a typical day, more men watch a YouTube video than women – 23% to 15%.

6. Only 14% of cell phone owners have watched online video on their phone.

7. Among those who have watched TV or movies online, 23% have plugged their computer into their TV.

Web video’s growing, but it still has a lot of places, people, and demographics where it has significant growth potential.

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