YT Exec - /rips massive line of coke off Intern’s ass/ - “Remove View Count”
YT Engineer - “But Sir, users will hate that. It will actively make the user experience worse”
YT Exec - “That’s the goddamn point!”
YouTube tests removing viewer counts — here’s what we know
Submitted 6 months ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/software/youtube-tests-removing-viewer-counts-heres-what-we-know
Comments
RangerJosie@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Inter - “You could at least give me reacharound while you’re doing that”
scarabic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This is inane but damn if it didn’t give me a good laugh :D
cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
sounds like another job for the return youtube dislikes guy
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Seems like a sure way to lose my engagement. I don’t understand what Google thinks they’re getting out of this except for flooding you with more ads between video recommendations at the cost of people actually watching anything and using the damn website.
Between removing the dislike counter, a defect search bar that shoves garbage down your throat, recommendations of decreasing quality on my end and shorts (which I hesitantly gave a try but ultimately lost all interest in because it remained mostly low effort content despite my efforts to train my algorithm), this is just another reason I find myself spending more time enjoying other things lately.
Maybe I am just out of touch, but I smell another bubble bursting when I look at how enshittified all major web services are simultaneously becoming.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Maybe I am just out of touch, but I smell another bubble bursting when I look at how enshittified all major web services are simultaneously becoming.
It feels like something has to give, right?
We have YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Google Search, and more just racing to enshittify like I can’t even believe, yet they’re also at the ‘critical mass’ of ‘too big to fail’ and shoved out all their major competitors already (other than Discord I guess).
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
except for flooding you with more ads between video recommendations
That’s literally it. The advertising and marketing teams within Google have politically maneuvered themselves into running the show, and the software/product engineering teams that want to maximize the quality of the system they work on (search, youtube) are overridden by insipid metrics that advertising needs more user interaction with ads.
They literally have been commanding that things be made more shitty to optimize their malformed metrics. There are email chains documenting this that have become part of the public record due to various court cases.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I think the second part of my sentence you cropped was the more important one to get across. It doesn’t matter how indistinguishable ads become from regular content when nobody is even willing to use your billboard for an excuse of a website anymore. Besides, institutions like the EU and even the FTC in the US will step in and break apart those dark patterns when they keep getting out of hand. We already grand Google way too much leeway but there’s only so much Silicon Valley giants can get away with before getting slapped with fines and bans. There are already strict rules in the EU about transparency when it comes to advertisements and not even Youtube can ignore them for a very long time.
scarabic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I guess I’d rather have it than not have it, but I don’t really understand how it would make YT unusable to me if I didn’t know how many other people viewed a video. How often are you using those numbers to make important decisions between videos about what to watch? I tend to go by the topic and subscribe to creators whose videos I like. Very occasionally I might be looking for a guide to an obscure level in an obscure game and there may be 3 similar looking videos about it, but one has 200 views and the others have single digits, and I agree in that situation it means something. But otherwise I just never pay attention to it. What do I care if 2000 or 200,000 people watched a video that looks interesting to me? Some creators I subscribe to have just a couple hundred followers. I don’t care.
stoy@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
In 5 years:
Youtube tests small ads in the top corner during video playback.
In 10 years:
Youtube tests small increase in size of well established corner ads.
In 15 years:
Youtube graciously allows video playback inbetween ads
SouravSatvaya@lemmy.world 6 months ago
In 20 years, “YouTube was an online video sharing platform…”
I doubt they can make it to the next 20 years, the way they are controlling everything.
VonReposti@feddit.dk 6 months ago
“We can sell 80 percent of the screen before inducing seizures!”
ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 6 months ago
86% if you disregard the mild ones!
fnrir@lemmy.world 6 months ago
In 20 years:
Users can no longer upload and YouTube becomes just a CDN for Adsense.
(and the only way to watch old videos is through the Internet Archive)
sag@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Next What??? Removing Title, Only Thumbnail.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
It’s currently a race-to-the-bottom in big IT & tech, where they don’t look how they get you to like them but how much savings they can get away with, without repelling you.
nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
In this case YouTube can do literally anything they want due to the lack of real alternatives. Hosting videos for free, for anyone (and any number of viewers) to watch, for free, is rather predictably not a very profitable business model. If you want to see what it takes to actually be profitable with such a model, look at the average free porn site. Extremely intrusive ads everywhere. If you don’t want to pay, and ads are the only revenue, advertisers are the customer, not you.
InverseParallax@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Gemini Ai makes up a title for you.
That’s as cursed as I can make it.
sheogorath@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The endgame will be Gemini generating videos based on the information they’ve harvested off you.
simonced@lemmy.one 6 months ago
The title will be text to speech on mouse over.
The future is here.Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Removing the homepage entirely, replacing the entire UI with the shorts-style format of “view video right now, tap button to see next/previous video”. If you want a specific video, you must search for it.
GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 6 months ago
Remove the user generated videos. only title, videoads and comments allowed.
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
YouTube/Google and hiding data from the end-user, name a better duo.
notfromhere@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Not to mention their “1080p” streams look worse than 2013 480p streams. The site is a dumpster fire.
CaptKoala@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
I thought I was imagining this until I put a 1080p episode on one monitor and a 1080p YT vid on another. The difference was night and day.
CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.world 6 months ago
That’s why you need to pay for premium so you can get the 1080p premium bitrate.
shotgun_crab@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Return youtube view counts, coming soon
hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
downdaemon@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
Odyssey is all fascists and crypto bros
vonbaronhans@midwest.social 6 months ago
Rumble isn’t any better. It’s where my dad gets his COVID conspiracy material after folks got kicked off other platforms.
Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Isn’t rumble the same? Lul what the fuck is going on with the world.
linearchaos@lemmy.world 6 months ago
You can find electroboom in Big Clive on there.
Outside of that it’s pretty much a write off
Fizz@lemmy.nz 6 months ago
Its got a lot of those types for sure, but it has the most normal content of any alt video platform.
AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 6 months ago
It’s sad that Odysse has turned to that because it was where I was thinking about uploading content.
JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
That’s what happens to all alternatives at the start, only the content that isn’t suitable for the main platform migrates there. It requires a mass exodus because of something major, like what happened with reddit and twitter, to get enough regular users there.
Lemmy literally exists literally because Dessalines, a “long time Marxist-leninist” decided that “Fuck the while supremacist Reddit admins” and made a federated alternative to host r/communism because reddit is run by an “anti-tankie scum”.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
this would essentially kill my method of viewing videos on the platform, this isn’t a boost to interaction they think it will be, it will ultimately result in me watching less videos as I won’t have the ability to decipher trash from good, so I’ll just stick with content creators that I am used to and no longer branch out like I currently do.
alphacyberranger@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Who makes these retarded decisions?
LodeMike@lemmy.today 6 months ago
MBAs
Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 6 months ago
As someone who tries to regularly post videos on YouTube I think this would help me, since I’m sure many people (including me, unfortunately) avoid low view count videos.
But I can absolutely understand why you wouldn’t want it hidden. I’m sure this will lead to major misinformation clickbaiting (as if that isn’t already a problem!), but I believe that the view count will still be visible on the view page.
Is YouTube doing it with small creators actually in mind? Who knows, other than them?
misk@sopuli.xyz 6 months ago
I don’t like this idea for the opposite reason. I’m one of the people who are suspicious of videos with millions of views since most of them look manufactured. We all use view counts to gauge if a video is something we’re after, probably in more ways than we can come up with.
If it gives you any encouragement - I’m not discouraged by view counts. I know I like niche stuff and give small channels a try. It’s a chance at having more genuine interaction. As long as a video is not off-putting due to bad diction or very bad production then I’m not going to back out and see what it is about.
Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 6 months ago
That’s fair, and I’m more inclined to believe people on Lemmy would agree with your view thankfully! A lot of high view videos are for sure manufactured, and from what I can tell usually target children.
I guess we’ll see how the landscape changes if this sticks around? We’re all along for the ride, for the most part!
golli@lemm.ee 6 months ago
Is YouTube doing it with small creators actually in mind? Who knows, other than them?
I am pretty confident in guessing that they are not doing it for selfless reasons. Imo the reason is that the less information they give the user, the more you are beholden to the algorithm choosing for you.
vxx@lemmy.world 6 months ago
That makes sense. Youtube has mixed more and more small channels with low views into my feed for a couple of months.
Flipper@feddit.org 6 months ago
I’ve watched a couple of those, they were really good.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
I don’t avoid low view count videos because…say I get a notification that RedLetterMedia has just published a new Best of the Worst. It’s been live for 4 minutes. Of course it’s going to have a low view count.
I’m looking for a repair video on the specific make and model of Dell laptop I have. I’ve seen exactly two of them in existence, not a popular model. It’s going to have a low view count.
I think it is useful information to have, it shouldn’t be entirely hidden like the downvotes are, but I don’t think it’s necessary on the home page.
Date uploaded though…that needs to be there.
Ironfacebuster@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah, I agree that it shouldn’t be hidden entirely, and luckily as it stands now it’s still visible on the view page if it’s hidden on the home page
Sunshine@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Time for Peertube
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Lmfao, fuck it, why not remove titles, tags and the searchbar too if you only want them to watch the videos your algo hand picks.
nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 months ago
Let’s just remove all video metadata including author. You just get video that is unskippable and you have to watch it (and ads) before getting a new video. Webcam required to track your eyeballs and the video will only play while you are looking at the screen.
angrystego@lemmy.world 6 months ago
And let’s make the video be an ad too, why waste time.
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
That’s their end goal: no choice whatsoever, you watch 30 minutes of ads, followed by the 30 second video the algorithm wants you to watch (which is also an ad), 30 more minutes of ads, and so on.
And, since they also own chrome, you can’t go to any other page without first spending at least six hours watching youtube.
brap@lemmy.world 6 months ago
How about you test marking videos as watched across devices so I don’t have the same shit pushed back at me all the time.
kokesh@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Why? Is everything going to shit? Like counts, view counts, dislikes … I suppose it won’t change anything for me on reVanced, but still… why?
Rob200@lemmings.world 6 months ago
You know why they might be hiding upload dates? My theory is, Youtube doesn’t really want you looking at new stuff. (Very apparent by the algorithm) they want you looking at specific news stories, and specific content but not constantly seeking new uploads from independents.
But that is just a theory a plain theory. Thanks for watching.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 6 months ago
In the future you’ll pay $900/mo to stare at a blank page.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 months ago
Ok, this one is really stupid. Dislikes? Ok. Views? Fuck all the way off, Google.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Hmm at a glance I dont see a major issue here, my concern would be that I dont click on vids with shit numbers so they are now on a more equal footing.
But it is better for people not to be so focused on numbers like removing number of likes on Instagram.
pineapplelover@lemm.ee 6 months ago
I’ve encountered so many AI generated videos that now I have to depend on view count since they removed dislike. And even view count doesn’t work as well because people click on just to see why there are high view counts, turns out it’s an AI video with high view count. Absolutely terrible practice. Youtube knows, they’re not stopping
ColdWater@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Fucking YouTube is at it again, you know what I think Susan make a better YouTube CEO than the current retarded CEO, Luckily Revanced is a thing hopefully they patch it if it come true
chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
And you (user) will accept all of it without questioning and maybe we let you watch some video between the ads.
paraphrand@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Does TikTok show view count? This seems like a move that is intended to compete with TikTok.
Badeendje@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I hope the return down vote people just start collecting view count and upvotes too. Then we can at least keep that.
notous@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Screw this, mainstream websites are constantly trying to do everything they can to influence public opinion every day. First dislike button second this.
dinckelman@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It’s already really difficult to engage with the content you want to see, but now they’re also taking away the only immediately noticeable metric of a successful video? Genuinely just why
DaddleDew@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They removed the star system a long time ago. They removed the down votes again a few years back.
CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 6 months ago
That’ll work excellent for all those people trying to find tutorial videos for ‘XYZ’ when you have no verification data to determine whether it’s even a legit tutorial.
SuperIce@lemmy.world 6 months ago
To be fair, the star system was garbage. I agree with the rest though
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Too hard to manipulate the algorithm with ai spam, disguised ads and propaganda if users can see all the videos at the top of their recommended feed have 20 views.
You must only view what the Corporation approves.
crypt0cler1c@infosec.pub 6 months ago
They want to decide what you like and don’t like. You WILL watch what THEY show you.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 months ago
some internal metric and testibg said this increases engagement by 2.1% so now we are stuck with it.
Cheesus@lemmy.world 6 months ago
To hope you find new content. YouTube had been putting random low watch count videos in my feed. I never click on them because of their low view count. The thumbsnails make them look like they’re high quality videos. Without the view count I have no idea if they have 1,000 views or millions. They’re hoping I will click on them, subscribe, and spend more time in the app.
scarabic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Personally I find the highest viewed videos on YT to be the absolute shittiest ones.
dinckelman@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah, that’s kinda the problem too
atrielienz@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I’m curious how this will affect things like sub-a-thons where people stream for charity and so on.
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
The data will have to be there for sorting reasons and such, so this is just an extra nod to using an app like Grayjay, which will almost assuredly still pull the data and display it for you to see.