YouTube has rolled out the latest element in its recent redesign efforts, now focusing on the upper “fold” of its site.

The San Bruno based site has recently made an effort to enhance their public image, likely due in part to the Google transition. Their logo was enhanced to a more “web 2.0″ style, with gradients and reflections, and their interface went through a slight change.

One notable part of this redesign is that it’s now extremely image intensive, something most Web 2.0 sites have attempted to drift away from using a combination of XHTML and CSS. Surprisingly, most of YouTube’s “mission critical” elements, portions such as the tabs along the top, or something as simple as an “Upload Video” link are now images. From a web design standpoint, these parts could be effectively substituted with standard text (this would also decrease loading time/bandwidth, and no doubt they have problems witih that).

It’s a dramatic change as well in YouTube’s image, as they’ve largely dropped their red colouring (it’s only prevalent in their logo and flash player). It’s an enigmatic change that leaves us asking where are they going next — what are they preparing for?

Edited slightly to clarify a point, thanks to Sam in the comments for pointing out my mistake.