Youtube's Algorithm

Youtube’s algorithm has been a hot topic for quite some time now. For a website geared towards ad viewership and how they can get the most amount of people possible to watch ads. The algorithm can so be a crucial part of Youtube’s earnings. Recently Youtube has changed their algorithm that affects what we have for options to watch. This change in ways has been beneficial and in other ways harmful. Let’s take a look at Youtube’s previous algorithm technique.

Both algorithms in a sense are made to verify quality of videos. Youtube’s old algorithm based quality off of viewership. This method works in a way that the videos that get the more clicks and views get raised up into the spotlight of the main page. The old method worked for many years until several Youtubers found out how to cheat the system. When the main page is based off of views, all big Youtubers had to do was pump out videos all the time with no work put into their videos. At many times in this algorithm, the main page would be filled by five to ten Youtubers with many unspectacular videos. The main reason this algorithm didn’t work was the abundance of low quality videos, and it did not promote smaller Youtube channels.

In today’s Youtube, the algorithm is focused on view time. Youtube is starting to think that the longer people stay and watch videos, the better quality it must be. To me this is a very effective way to show quality. Also this algorithm works for Youtube, because the longer people stay and watch a video the more they are exposed to ads which, in a way, is also a down side to this algorithm. People do not like sitting through ads, so the longer people watch a certain video the more prone they are to being annoyed by ads. Another downside to this algorithm is that content creators, who were once successful for short 30 second to 3 mintute videos, are no longer as successful. Even if people watch the 3 minute videos in their entirety it is still less view time than say a 10 minute video from another Youtuber.

Youtube is still trying to find the sweet spot with their algorithm. At the end of the day, they won’t be able to make everyone happy regardless of the system they make. But what they can do is find a happy medium, when it comes to catering to the well-established Youtube channels and promoting the smaller youtube channels. Youtube has to be careful with the algorithm they choose to be final, because in one way Youtube can be filled with thousands of smaller content creators and no big star studded ones. Another devastating outcome from a wrong algorithm being used is all that Youtube will mainly consist of big Youtube channels, causing the smaller channels to fade out.

Cash Minx
03/31/16