YouTube finally tries to make itself presentable. Aw, I'll miss the jumbled-crap non-design of the old YouTube. They are adding one feature I've long thought they desperately needed to improve: There does need to be a sensible way to find things other than the standard methods - links e-mailed to you or posted at a site like this - I'm curious how robust it will be. PS, this thread is here because this discussion is more than just the design of the site - it's about YouTube as a media outlet.
I don't like the new design. Looks too busy. With so many things on the screen at once, it's hard for the eyes to focus on one thing. Seems to be a trend to pack in as much content as possible on a screen. I miss the days when things would be appropriately spaced out enough to make your eyes drawn to it.
I don't like how its lost the functionality it used to have in regards to subscriptions (not grouping videos up by maker anymore, just posting them in the order they came out). It's much more difficult to find what I want to watch. For example, if someone I like but who doesn't post that often puts out a new video, I may miss it in the stream. Likewise, if I don't want to watch a particular user at that minute, I can't just skip over their 'box' any more.
From a UI design standpoint, it really does not make a lot of sense that all videos are now presented in a vertical list format. Doing it this way implies that the top videos are more important than the videos at the bottom. Not only that, only 3-4 videos are now visible when previously I could see 9-12 videos. Imho, they should keep the option to display stuff in a grid.
Exactly. It looks like it was designed for a tablet where it would make more sense, but I'm not even sure if the iPad uses the website or would even go to the main page. With a good multiplatform redesign, you'll usually get redirected to the design meant for that platform.
I like it. I can browse what videos my subscribed channels have posted by channel, instead of just getting a zillion videos on my front page and having to manually sort through them.
Remember what happened when Netflix made changes it "thought" the customer would like. These are more likely things that people at Google will like. The only thing we can do is stop using their services.
Glad to see some replies at least. I was wondering for a while... "Tries" being the operative word. Any recommendation system will succeed or fail based on its ability to convince users of its usefulness. I've never used Netflix's recommended titles system because it works so poorly for me. The star-ratings predictions work much better for me. But YouTube at least needs to make the attempt to create a workable recommendations system.
How lucrative are ads on YT vidz? If someone is uploading original content...is there really any money to be made there?
Advertisers are leery of YouTube because they don't want to be associated with stupid shit. That's been a big problem for YouTube. That's behind YouTube's foray into scripted programming. They're trying to create content that won't embarrass advertisers. But ad-supported TV is a (slowly) dying business, so does it make any sense for them to jump into it? Deadline article on YouTube's predicament. That's not a bad idea, to focus on narrowcasting since that's where TV is going anyway. Maybe we can get a space opera or three out of YouTube. Nah, too pricey, that's the problem, if the channels are narrowcasting, it's going to be a lot of cheap talk shows and reality TV, bleh. And what's the advantage of a "professionally produced" YouTube channel on, say, crocheting, vs a home-made crocheting channel produced by an amateur enthusiast? The amateur doesn't expect to be paid or to share in the ad revenues. Maybe YouTube should stop worrying so much about "Madison Avenue." Google AdSense works by offering a way for small businesses to target their ads effectively. They aren't huge corporations that can afford to hire Madison Avenue. But there are crocheting suppliers who would love to advertise on that crocheting channel. Multiply that times every little niche interest imaginable and you have a serious business. EDIT: Here's the list of YouTube pro channels and producers. The guy in the comments who talks about wanting the "dumb ass clips of star wars and fights in burger king" channel is right on the money. Serving narrow, niche tastes is what YouTube is all about, but what those tastes are, and how to serve them, is best determined by the YouTube community. They're already doing that. Throwing a bunch of professionally produced talk shows about cars and animals and fashion isn't adding anything that YouTube can't already do. There are plenty of people willing to spew their opinions about cars and animals and fashion already, for free. As long as there's a robust enough search mechanism, we can all find the videos on those or any other topics that are worth seeing (as defined by each individual). It's like YouTube is going backwards here. I really think they've got this wrong. They don't need to find new content to match up with Madison Avenue advertisers, they need a way of finding advertisers to match up with the content users already generate. It can't all be embarrassing crap. Maybe they can get McDonald's to sponsor the Burger King fight videos.
Does AdSense really bring enough money to websites though that if applied to YT vidz producers of original content could justify spending money to produce that content for YT? If yes then it would be great for people who want to get their work out there without having to rely on the backing of studios.
Another thing I just realized. Their favicon is different. The logo on the website is still the same, but the favicon is a white play arrow on a red background which to me feels generic and something a Youtube competitor would use.. It lacks the branding focus that the original one had, which was instantly recognizeable. We've had that one since before even Google bought Youtube, and people instantly can see it's Youtube at a glance, so why change now? In fact, I think it was already changed again as I remember seeing a red arrow with a black background before I wrote this.
The first video that the New YouTube recommended for me? Lady Gaga. When in spud's name have I ever shown any interest in Lady Gaga? Epic fail, as the kids say nowadays. The AdSense model could work for certain videos, particularly of the how-to kind, aimed at niche interests. My crocheting example - which I just pulled out of thin air, having zero interest in the field - could be a series of how-to videos for that niche market, which in turn would of course be the perfect market for hobby stores that sell crocheting supplies. Those stores are mom & pop types, and couldn't afford much in the way of advertising, but if they paid only for sales through their websites, it would be a no-brainer for them. The real hold-up here is that while it's easy for big advertisers like Ford to match their ads with mainstream TV based on viewer demographics, matching up small companies scattered everywhere with niche tastes scattered everywhere is a much harder task. The other thing YouTube needs to work on is the comments. I'm sure we've all noticed how idiotic/useless/embarrassing the comments are, because YouTube hasn't yet understood that the community they're building is an important product for them to sell. Go back to the Crocheting How-To Channel. That's going to attract a scattered niche audience potentially from all over the world. It may be a tiny percentage of the population, but we're talking a tiny percentage of seven billion people. From that perspective, niche audiences can be huge, great places to advertise. But how will people know about the Crocheting Community on YouTube? Word of mouth. And the last thing YouTube wants is for some 12 year old trolls in the comments to be scaring away the paying customers. The other issue is the kinds of videos we associate with TV and movies - scripted drama and comedy that have no practical application to a niche interest that can be marketed to. Keep in mind that TV drama and comedy evolved because of mass-market advertising and is adapted to that system. Change the advertising system, and the content must also change. There's no guarantee the new system will want drama and comedy like the old system did. But that said, I could see (for instance) a space opera web series that is targetted at a niche audience, to whom you can sell other sci fi things - novels, video games. You may be able to expand into related niches. Let's say you have an Honor Harrington style military space opera series. Maybe you expand into military fiction and videos. Maybe there's even a political slant to that group that certain candidates might want to influence. Since all media, including novels and games, are headed towards zero value, it's best not to have advertising that depends solely on those things. If you're not making much money off something, there's not going to be much of an ad budget for it. Because of that, I'd look more at expanding the notion of political candidates wanting to reach a certain market. Or, certain employers might want tor recruit from that group. They might be in the market for very specific types of products. You'd have to take a look at the characteristics of every one of these sub-niches and try to match them up with advertisers.
Brainstorm: self-service advertising. Why doesn't YouTube (or TrekBBS for that matter) throw advertising open to everyone? For $20, plunk your message into an ad banner for X number of views/click throughs. There's a form you fill out online and it all happens automatically, so that YouTube doesn't need to go to the expense of hiring account execs to ferret out every crocheting supplier in the world and get them to sign on the dotted line. Yeah, that would be a train wreck. But an interesting one. There are probably ways to corral this notion into something workable. For instance, motivate advertisers to do their legwork and target their own ads effectively instead of just spamming up the place and annoying everyone. If the crocheting supplier delivers a great, effective message to the right crocheting-hobbyist audience, and gets some massive numbers of click-throughs (say, anything above one percent), they get additional impressions for free. And they get listed on a prominent leaderboard of the smartest advertisers in the YouTube community, with links to their ads so that people can appreciate their brilliance. Basically, take ads and gamify them. Turn them into a positive instead of an annoying negative.