I may be late to the game on this one. Wouldn’t be the first time. But I noticed today that YouTube has finally added some features that allow for more customization of user channels on the site. Chief among these changes is the ability to upload a channel image. Previously you were only allowed to use a thumbnail from the most recent video as your channel image.

You can change the channel image by going to My Account and under the channel image at the top you’ll see a ‘change’ link. If you click that you’ll see the option to upload in the next screen.

If you go the Channel Design section you’ll find the ability to do things like pick the boxes (like friends, comments and subscriptions) that appear on your profile. You can also change the page background color as well as change the colors of the remaining boxes.

YouTube has long held the advantage of being the best video sharing site for producers to find audiences. But YouTube’s branding and sharing features have lagged behind services like Blip.tv and Vimeo. The channel customization features along with their custom players makes YouTube a more attractive choice for semi-pro content producers. So I’m glad to see these updates.

All that good stuff said, YouTube is still sorely lacking. There are three areas where they get their butts kicked by other video sites. Those areas are conversion quality, statistics and podcast (especially iTunes) support. Flash conversion quality is poor. Statistics provide no details. And RSS feeds don’t include enclosures or any tags that would support iTunes. Of course iTunes tags don’t mean much since YouTube does not provide access to your uploaded file in the RSS feed.

Even with all the negatives. YouTube does have a huge audience and for that reason alone video producers should maintain a presence there.