YouTube appears to finally be embracing its status as the second most-used search engine on the planet. Its new masthead design, just announced tonight, puts a much bigger emphasis on the site’s search capabilities.

The new masthead looks very much like the Google.com masthead on a search results page: logo, large search box, and a few navigational text links. (With the obvious difference that YouTube’s links are below the seearch box, and Google’s are above.)

YouTube’s blog posts says to expect more changes in the masthead: “Next up, we’ll be focusing on giving you the controls to make the masthead more personalized.”

Related Topics: Google: YouTube & Video

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land's Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee