YouTube Tests New Homepage That Hides Video Upload Date, View Count (tomsguide.com)
- Reference: 0175352625
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/10/29/1534238/youtube-tests-new-homepage-that-hides-video-upload-date-view-count
- Source link: https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/software/youtube-tests-removing-viewer-counts-heres-what-we-know
> YouTube is reportedly [1]testing a new website layout that removes the date when a video was uploaded and the amount of views it has. [...] On Monday, October 28, VidIQ reported in a post on X that YouTube is testing a new homepage layout that removes view counts and dates.
[1] https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/software/youtube-tests-removing-viewer-counts-heres-what-we-know
Awww, twyyying to pwotect fwom slings and arrows? (Score:3)
Awww, trying to protect the sensitive from the slings and arrows of critics?
That's the only reason I can see behind this -- thin-skinned creators who get their buttholes sore when the downvotes come whined, and this is youtube's way of "protecting" them.
I'm sure an extension will come along shortly just like the one to restore the showing of downvotes.
Re: (Score:2)
I can see another reason: I frequently find that YouTube recommends videos to me that it says I haven't watched before but I know I have. In borderline cases where I think I recognise the title and the thumbnail, the "3 years ago" posting date is the final confirmation. If they hide that then I might watch it a second time.
Re: (Score:2)
It's way more cynical than that. YouTube doesn't care one whit about content creators, their quality, or their complaints. They just want to drive up views of any kind to get more ad impressions. And it will definitely work. People in general tend to not watch things with an older date because it's old stuff now. Without the dates listed, YouTube hopes/knows you'll just click on the bait and watch it again.
Courageous (Score:2)
We're doing it to be courageous.
We learnt it from the best. /s
ffs morons (Score:1)
headline: everyone in the world tests stuff that isn't owned and enshittified by google
why remove the date? (Score:2)
That's just for a nefarious profit-making purpose (and ironically potentially short-term -- somebody needs a quick promotion?). Every compelling reason for doing that is nefarious, no amount of corporate spin and sophistry can change that.
Re: (Score:2)
Correct. It's all about getting more ad impressions when you watch mediocre videos a second time.
Without a date time sensitive material is useless (Score:2)
News stories or action items become impossible to track. Did this happen an hour ago or 10 years ago? You'll waste more time finding out. That's the point.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. I came to say something similar. A lot of what I watch is useless if it's more than a week or two old. Without a date on it I would waste time opening useless videos I'm going to close the moment they start talking about old shit.
For example, I watch a few Ukraine war update channels almost every day. I already saw yesterday's update. I absolutely do not want to see last week's or last year's. Without a date what good are they? Even sorted by chronological order isn't any good because maybe
E-shitified Tube is last resort (Score:2)
I look elsewhere 1st now since they've shitified the UI, tripled the ads and moved to destroy Ublock. Even adding ad pre-rolls to Discord... Yeesh
If I must used them, I use Freetube. Now that I've moved my subs to it I find it's much better.
useless for news (Score:2)
This is bad. Just when Youtube is getting a reputation as a viable alternative to the legacy media, they remove the upload date, which makes the service mostly useless for news. They already present news clips in random order, and you can only tell what's current by the upload date or if the poster happens to include the date in the title.
It's almost like (pops on my foil hat) youtube was threatened or paid off by the legacy media.
Bad UI (Score:5, Informative)
Users rely on views and upload dates as a marker of quality. This is anti-pattern UI meant to manipulate users. No surprise from censorship-happy Google though.
Re: (Score:3)
Not to mention the removal of public dislikes.
Re: (Score:1)
Consider the degree that publications were affected by publicly revealing public opinion. This degree would trend along with how much the video was, well, a "publication". Something corporate, clinical, lifeless, propagandy/adverty, something PR, PC, sterile. Something expensive, the official mouth of something with expenses.
Those who had the most to lose from public dislikes were also the ones with deep pockets. Those who benefit from transparency were commoners.
With this hindsight? Of course the feature w
Re: (Score:2)
Dates and views are only peripherally connected to quality.
Example: (insert famous pop artist) video from 14 years ago may have 3 million views, while exquisite performance of rarely-heard classical stuff may have.. just hundreds of views. Even though arguably the quality of the music presented is much higher.
Pop sells. I-IV-V sells. Sophistication doesn't, unless you're into Rush or SAGA or something of that ilk.
I still loathe that YouTube is studying hiding this information. It's manipulative and sp
Re: (Score:2)
Dates may not be relevant to quality per se, but it's absolutely material to whether I'm interested in watching something.
"Oh a review video about that game that just released an expansion, maybe I'll, oh wait this is from 4 years ago when the game first came out" is not an atypical thought process.
"I might've watched this video before, it seems familiar and YouTube bugs sometimes forget what I've watched, oh wait it came out yesterday" is also a common one.
Reducing information in UIs is transparently an at
Re: (Score:2)
> Dates may not be relevant to quality per se, but it's absolutely material to whether I'm interested in watching something.
Dunno how you do the bulk of your youtubing but mine's 99.5% on the PC and .5% on phone/tablet
On the PC, I see thumbnails with a partial or full red bar at the very bottom of the thumbnail - tha'ts my "tell" that I've seen this before.
Happens a lot with a friend. He'll send a link, i'll look, and see the Red Bar.. "dude, we've seen this before." "Yeah, but it's still worth it"
Re: (Score:1)
that's ok because we're all well aware of how evil google has become and how useless youtube will soon be, we clearly see the results of classism in the increasing incompetence of corrupt transnational corporations