YouGooDai

There's more video content online these days than ever before, and the choices keep growing. YouGooDai isn't an obscure martial arts movie but a free media player from Mode2. You can use it to browse and watch streaming video from popular video sites like YouTube, Google, and Dailymotion--the "YouGooDai" in the program's name--as well as others such as Joox and Peekvid. It plays flv, divx, and other file formats. You can create playlists with your favorite Internet TV shows, videos, and RSS feeds and share them with others. The program can also play media files saved on your computer, too, in standard and wide-screen modes. Its best feature may be the way it lets you easily browse multiple sites from one intuitive interface.

YouGooDai's main interface sports a unique, metallic-skinned design that's actually one of the more attractive layouts we've encountered, with tabbed selections for the browser, favorites, playlist, and configuration settings that are also controlled by icons on the taskbar. It has the full complement of typical media player controls, and it even has a very cool spectral display. The playlist feature is a little bit different from the rest of the pack but also quite easy to use. There's online assistance available, including a forum and a regularly updated developer's blog, at the software's Web site.

YouGooDai is freeware that works in most versions of Windows, and in Vista with the User Account Controls turned off. It requires Adobe Flash 9 or higher to display some content.