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Around the audience and views, YouTube’s first algorithm recommended videos that attracted the most views or clicks. The more people clicked on the video, the more it would appear for others to click on, too. This lasted until 2011 when the platform realized this kind of recommendation led to the practice known as clickbait: titles and thumbnails meticulously crafted to attract clicks, without worrying about the video content or user experience with the video itself. 2. Watch time Aiming to bypass the clickbait movement, in 2012 the platform started to consider video time watched, and overall time spent on the platform – a way to measure not just the clicks on the video, but also its relevance for users.
The motto was: make videos your audience wants to watch, and the algorithm will reward you. The problem was the platform did not consider the video size, or differentiate the video watched time from the overall time spent on the platforms. Things got a Cyprus Phone Number List little confusing for creators, and the platform decided to persuade another path for the algorithm. 3. Satisfaction Ok – then it was time to hear from the audience. Trying to measure its behavior was not bringing good results, so in 2015 the platform decided to ask users about their satisfaction levels, collecting information directly from the source through user surveys.
So, instead of recommending videos that other people are watching, YouTube started to recommend videos that each particular viewer would have more propensity to watch. And, well, the results were pretty good! In 2018, 70% of watch time on YouTube was spent watching recommended videos. Who could possibly imagine that listening to your audience would be the right path after all, huh?! And what changes to YouTube’s algorithm moving forward? After testing different approaches, satisfaction and recommending personalized videos per user are here to stay. The platform understood this was the best method to incentivize spending time on the videos, and proved to be the best way to go.
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