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| YouTube is making some changes. |
The internet is constantly swirling around in a whirlpool of change, but are certain changes necessary? Some experimental "improvements" could potentially undo the previous progress made. Interface is everything these days and user experience is on top of every sites list. The good thing is some of these sites grant access to switch back to the old interface after a change.
YouTube has been around for a while and most of the changes have been great when it comes to their video player itself. Recently YouTube has added some features that are not so popular. We put together a brief list of things that are currently bothering us on YouTube and need to be eliminated.
10. Dislike Button
Not the video dislike button, but the comments dislike button. Does this thing even work anymore? It used to be if you disliked a comment it would remove 1 like from it. Now the button is completely useless, it isn't even interactive for god's sake! Why is it there? Seriously this feature needs to be fixed or removed.
09. Watch Later Button
Honestly if you're on YouTube and you can't find the time to watch the video, then you probably wouldn't be on YouTube in the first place! The main reason people go to YouTube is because they have some time to kill. If you came across a video that you wanted to watch again, wouldn't you subscribe, bookmark, share or email the link to yourself? For people who mess with quality settings or turn annotations off, the watch later button can be annoying when accidentally hit.
08. Google Plus Comment System
Is it us or does the comment system lack a specific order? Comments used to be organized by time or rating but now it's tailored more to the user. What does that even mean exactly? The top results in most YouTube comments we see are random comments with maybe 1 like and 1 response. Are these people in our circles on Google Plus? What about the reply system? We find it pretty annoying when people reply to our generic comment on a video, just to get an email notification about it, just to receive another one because someone responded to them, etc. The only way to stop the madness is to "Mute" your comment thread but you have to mute everything you comment on!
07. Annotations
Why do people abuse this feature so much? The worst thing anyone could experience watching a video is colored message boxes popping up all in front of the video. The only thing this feature is good for is linking another set of videos at the end of the video that's playing. People who write text in ridiculous color boxes saying "SUBSCRIBE NOW" or "GO TO MARKETING.ORG" leave people like us quickly clicking away from the video. YouTube does allow you to turn off annotations on videos under the video setting and account setting, but we don't want it disabled, we want it moderated.
06. Application versions
We can't really speak on the full YouTube experience across all platforms and devices but we can speak for the ones we've had a run in with. The Playstation 3 YouTube application is one of the worst we've seen, and over the years hasn't received much attention. The application leaves no quality control and the navigation is very sloppy. To make things worse,
The Android app is also disappointing. Even though these are Google phones, we are still having issues. Searching for videos within a previous video search result only drops you back into the previous video search result. For example - You search for cat videos and the results come up, you then hit search and type in video games, the screen refreshes the cat videos. The only way around this is to back out of the search results into the home menu to search something new. Then why have the search bar available in the search results page? Isn't this a mock-up of the desktop site?
05. Offensive content in thumbnails
When the late Paul Walker passed away, a YouTube user uploaded a video with Paul Walkers face next to a face of a dead man. The photo of the dead man is very real and very graphic. Even though the photo is not that of Paul Walker, the video still gained a lot of attention. YouTube generally ask you to confirm proceeding if a video is graphic, but custom thumbnails are not hidden at all. Pornographic images can also be found all over YouTube in thumbnail form for videos that are not Pornographic at all, leaving exposure to teenagers and young children under 18 who surf YouTube.
04. Monetization of content under copyright
Full albums are available on YouTube for pretty much every artist you can think of, but these videos are slapped with ads. How can someone be making money off of music that's not theirs? Video game soundtracks are even more of a clear violation as users are sticking ads on those as well. The problem here is someone may be denied monetization on an original video for reasons unknown while these violators are allowed to profit.
So why is it okay for someone to upload all the Red Hot Chili Peppers albums and get paid for the views but your video of your dog making funny noises is denied? It happens more than you think and we've had personal experience from the original content end and even contacting YouTube it wasn't made clear what the issue really was. The entire process needs to be re-evaluated and people violating copyright should be aggressively pursued.
03. Video theft
How many times have you searched for a video only to find multiple sources for it? To make matters worse, these clones vary in quality and can be frustrating to click through. In many cases there can be so many dupes the original source can be near impossible to find. YouTube either needs to delete the offending copies or make the original the 1st result in the search.
02. Unskippable Video Ads
Advertisements are typically ignored by people for the most part and clicked only if something interesting catches there eye. Advertisements that stretch out over the page, pop ups or video ads that can't be skipped are among the worst. Not only do these kinds of ads make you want to leave, but they make you want to never come back. YouTube is still implementing these ad types in videos and is extremely annoying. Being able to skip an ad after 5 seconds is not as bad as 19 seconds of being forced to watch something.
01. Automatic Playlist
Why should you be redirected to a new video after watching another? When watching "Popular on YouTube" you get the worst of it. Especially if you want to share a video you were just watching, it leaves you no time to decide. This system can lead to a user being turned off to the next video even if it's interesting. It takes navigation away from the watcher and makes YouTube feel like it's becoming a spam hungry source for ad revenue. Small ad banner at the bottom of the video? No problem, but don't make us watch an entire commercial.
02. Unskippable Video Ads
Advertisements are typically ignored by people for the most part and clicked only if something interesting catches there eye. Advertisements that stretch out over the page, pop ups or video ads that can't be skipped are among the worst. Not only do these kinds of ads make you want to leave, but they make you want to never come back. YouTube is still implementing these ad types in videos and is extremely annoying. Being able to skip an ad after 5 seconds is not as bad as 19 seconds of being forced to watch something.
01. Automatic Playlist
Why should you be redirected to a new video after watching another? When watching "Popular on YouTube" you get the worst of it. Especially if you want to share a video you were just watching, it leaves you no time to decide. This system can lead to a user being turned off to the next video even if it's interesting. It takes navigation away from the watcher and makes YouTube feel like it's becoming a spam hungry source for ad revenue. Small ad banner at the bottom of the video? No problem, but don't make us watch an entire commercial.