Crazy Consumer Electronics World: Major usability upgrades are en route to Vine.co

Remember when you could only browse YouTube after you made an account? Or how about that time you could only see a friend's picture on Facebook because you got a direct URL instead of simply browsing your feed?

Of course you don't. That never happened.

On a post on their blog today, Vine announced that the web version of the popular mobile app is finally getting a major usability upgrade that will allow users to peruse the site's six-second videos without being a registered member.

Concerned about your videos appearing on the home page? Don't be. Private vines will still stay private, and Vine won't allow unregistered users to re-vine – essentially retweet – a registered user's vine.

Also announced was the addition of featured content that will highlight specific users, channels, and best-of videos curated by a team at Vine - and a handy search function on the site.

The king of swing

These sound like simple things really, but then again, this is coming from the company that just implemented profiles this past January.

2014 has been a big year for the Twitter-owned content-sharing site. It added direct messages earlier this month, and even took a hardline stance against porn to avoid getting chopped by Apple's App Store.

Figuring out what the public wants - especially in cases where they didn't even know they wanted it - is a crucial part of growing the business, and Vine's latest update makes it seem like they really have a handle on it.

The mobile version of Vine is now available in the latest version of the Vine app on iOS and Android .