So, as you might have noticed YouTube likes to make changes to its UI every once in a while.
And hey, I'm not about to go out on a limb and say that YouTube has always been perfect, or that no website should ever evolve EVER, I mean I study the whole idea behind social evolution in terms of technology and media as a goddamn module.
But there are a few problems that I have with YouTube's UI and the new mechanics behind it, or rather the way that it has always worked which I have recently learnt about.
1. Video Recommendations
Now, because Google feel like showing off I suppose, the first time that you log into YouTube it will have a list of videos that the site has recommended to you based on your viewing history. Now, this is a neat idea in principle because people like what is familiar to what they have seen.
But it seems way too sensitive. And by that I mean it will recommend anything based on your most recent viewing of a video, not by what type of video you have watched. Admittedly, this would be considerably harder to do, but it leads to the situation where you accidentally clicked on a link to a Justin Beiber video and it will essentially say "HEY, YOU LIKE JUSTIN BEIBER? HERE'S HIS ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY. DO YOU LIKE US NOW? LOOK AT HOW CLEVER WE ARE".
Now, I would't mind the recommendation feature if it was optional and not turned on as soon as you sign in, but because it is I'm not too happy about it. It's a minor annoyance but it is still...well an annoyance.
2. Finding your subscriptions.
A similar issue, but this time to do with the amount of time it actually takes to find your subscriptions. You have to click twice to get to them. And I know that sounds like the biggest first world problem ever...
"OH MY GOD I HAVE TO CLICK A MOUSE TWICE TO WATCH AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF CONTENT, MY LIFE FUCKING SUCKS!".
But considering the fact that you had the choice beforehand to see your subs from your default home page, it is just a bit annoying, but once again not the end of the world.
3. Seeing new videos.
The way that YouTube works, and the way that Google works, is that it will take the search term that you have entered be it "Cat playing piano" or "Penguin does back-flip into a vat of marmalade" and find the video or page with the most views relating to those keywords. This is a bit of problem if you're looking for a specific video, especially if it's a video with a common name; such as "Insane COD 360 no-scope".
But that's not a huge problem, like I said it's the way that Google and YouTube have worked for a while, and the ones with the most hits are likely to be of a higher quality...right?
However, there is a problem with finding new videos and channels that you are not subscribed to. The only way to do it is to either search for yourself (not likely to be productive) or rely on videos that your subscriptions have liked, commented or favorited. This sounds good in concept, but it means that there are a huge amount of videos that you are not actually watching, and if you're anything like me, and you watch a wide variety of videos, then just getting a like or a comment on one video from some random guy that you don't know or respect isn't really helping.
A content creator may be a comedian, but he may enjoy watching videos about early eastern pottery or how nutella is made. It creates a sort of oligarchy in YouTube, where the people who have a lot of views keep getting views and maybe if your channel gets noticed by one of these giants they might deem to throw down a chicken bone of a potential of partnership.
Bitter? Me?
This is probably the biggest problem with YouTube, but I don't see a way that it could be better, but hey I might just be bitter because I have been trying to get partnered for quite some time now and I just haven't got anywhere.
But hey, let's see what happens.
Hope that was interesting to mull over whilst I work on the next video,
Until next time,
Jamie.
And hey, I'm not about to go out on a limb and say that YouTube has always been perfect, or that no website should ever evolve EVER, I mean I study the whole idea behind social evolution in terms of technology and media as a goddamn module.
But there are a few problems that I have with YouTube's UI and the new mechanics behind it, or rather the way that it has always worked which I have recently learnt about.
1. Video Recommendations
Now, because Google feel like showing off I suppose, the first time that you log into YouTube it will have a list of videos that the site has recommended to you based on your viewing history. Now, this is a neat idea in principle because people like what is familiar to what they have seen.
But it seems way too sensitive. And by that I mean it will recommend anything based on your most recent viewing of a video, not by what type of video you have watched. Admittedly, this would be considerably harder to do, but it leads to the situation where you accidentally clicked on a link to a Justin Beiber video and it will essentially say "HEY, YOU LIKE JUSTIN BEIBER? HERE'S HIS ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY. DO YOU LIKE US NOW? LOOK AT HOW CLEVER WE ARE".
Now, I would't mind the recommendation feature if it was optional and not turned on as soon as you sign in, but because it is I'm not too happy about it. It's a minor annoyance but it is still...well an annoyance.
2. Finding your subscriptions.
A similar issue, but this time to do with the amount of time it actually takes to find your subscriptions. You have to click twice to get to them. And I know that sounds like the biggest first world problem ever...
"OH MY GOD I HAVE TO CLICK A MOUSE TWICE TO WATCH AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF CONTENT, MY LIFE FUCKING SUCKS!".
But considering the fact that you had the choice beforehand to see your subs from your default home page, it is just a bit annoying, but once again not the end of the world.
3. Seeing new videos.
The way that YouTube works, and the way that Google works, is that it will take the search term that you have entered be it "Cat playing piano" or "Penguin does back-flip into a vat of marmalade" and find the video or page with the most views relating to those keywords. This is a bit of problem if you're looking for a specific video, especially if it's a video with a common name; such as "Insane COD 360 no-scope".
But that's not a huge problem, like I said it's the way that Google and YouTube have worked for a while, and the ones with the most hits are likely to be of a higher quality...right?
However, there is a problem with finding new videos and channels that you are not subscribed to. The only way to do it is to either search for yourself (not likely to be productive) or rely on videos that your subscriptions have liked, commented or favorited. This sounds good in concept, but it means that there are a huge amount of videos that you are not actually watching, and if you're anything like me, and you watch a wide variety of videos, then just getting a like or a comment on one video from some random guy that you don't know or respect isn't really helping.
A content creator may be a comedian, but he may enjoy watching videos about early eastern pottery or how nutella is made. It creates a sort of oligarchy in YouTube, where the people who have a lot of views keep getting views and maybe if your channel gets noticed by one of these giants they might deem to throw down a chicken bone of a potential of partnership.
Bitter? Me?
This is probably the biggest problem with YouTube, but I don't see a way that it could be better, but hey I might just be bitter because I have been trying to get partnered for quite some time now and I just haven't got anywhere.
But hey, let's see what happens.
Hope that was interesting to mull over whilst I work on the next video,
Until next time,
Jamie.
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