The live video streaming service has adjusted its homepage to look much more like other video and news sites, with prominent categories – like news, sports, and entertainment – as well as more “featured” videos on the homepage, many of which emphasize recent celebrity appearances that have taken place on the service.
In addition to the new look and feel, Ustream users now get their own URL shortener – ustre.am, that is used when you share a link to a video on Twitter. This is significant not only because it saves users characters, but because Ustream has also turned on its Twitter chat feature for all users, which, has been instrumental in helping UStream videos from the likes of Diddy and Ashton Kutcher go incredibly viral lately.
We’ve also heard that Ustream plans to move the site over to Ustream.com later this week, as opposed to its current Ustream.tv. While Ustream.com already re-directs to Ustream.tv, the site and all of its pages will actually live on the dotcom once the change is completed. You’ll notice that Ustream has adjusted their logo in anticipation of the switch.