YouTube Question

[alan auerbach]

Hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I've long checked YouTube every morning, starting with Austin updates, and am grateful to the drone operators. But I don't know how YouTube operates.

When a viewer "likes" or "subscribes" to a clip (as the drone people request), what does it mean, what are the implications, what's the downside?

 

[Crissa]

When a viewer "likes" or "subscribes" to a clip (as the drone people request), what does it mean, what are the implications, what's the downside?

It adds it to a list you have called 'liked' and it increments a function of 'engagement' that YouTube uses to gauge if a video is good enough to suggest to someone else to watch.

Unfortunately, 'the algorithm' is quite the black box, and we don't know what helps the most.

-Crissa

 

[alan auerbach]

It adds it to a list you have called 'liked' and it increments a function of 'engagement' that YouTube uses to gauge if a video is good enough to suggest to someone else to watch.

Unfortunately, 'the algorithm' is quite the black box, and we don't know what helps the most.

-Crissa

All those earnest, repeated requests are to get YouTube to recommend the clip?

 

[FutureBoy]

All those earnest, repeated requests are to get YouTube to recommend the clip?

There is a whole ecosystem around the likes and subscribes. The advertising costs are partially determined by those numbers. The payout to content producers are partially determined by those rates. The recommends bar on the right contains videos that are related but also videos with higher rates of likes/subscribes. Plus things you personally have liked or subscribed in the past are considered in how new videos are chosen as recommendations.

But the exact calculations for how those numbers are used are known only to YouTube internal engineers. And the calculations themselves are periodically changed to give new and unknown effects to outsiders.

There is a constant battle between YouTube and outside firms to gain advantage in the market. Every time YouTube makes an algorithm change, a bunch of outside companies race to find where they can get an advantage and make more $$ than other companies. As they find those corners of advantage, YouTube then designs new modifications to keep their own advantage and not skew the marketplace to any one outside company.

And then there are further interactions with google advertising itself. Google advertising is similarly being tracked, modified, manipulated, tested, and controlled.

There are billions of dollars flowing through these systems. There are incredible numbers of engineers, business people, data analysts, artificial intelligence systems, etc all running this race.

And it’s not just that the videos get liked or subscribed. The fact that YOU specifically are the one who took that action also figures into the algorithms. Everything you do online is tracked by multiple companies. For most people, a single click on what they think are ordinary regular no-name sites will be tracked by over 100 companies. That data will be bundled, tracked, aggregated , re-sold, interpolated, and identified. Who you are as an internet user will impact how much your like or subscribe will influence the various algorithms.

This whole system is incredibly large, diversely designed, and not specifically controlled by any one point. But to a large extent, this system is what is actually paying for most of the internet. The fact that we the people have as a conglomerate decided not to pay cash for the internet, we have indirectly chosen to sell our data, actions, and attention to make the payments required to support the internet.

 

[alan auerbach]

"... the likes and subscribes. The advertising costs are partially determined by those numbers. The payout to content producers are partially determined by those rates. The recommends bar on the right contains videos that are related but also videos with higher rates of likes/subscribes. Plus things you personally have liked or subscribed in the past are considered in how new videos are chosen as recommendations."

Wow! Thanks! At least you guys know what you don't know whereas I don't. Is the following correct?

The person who posts a clip can be paid, and the amount is determined by the number of subscribes and likes, because that number affects the cost of the ads that interrupt that clip.

I have not seen a "recommends" bar to the right of the clip, but "Recommendations" means what clips are offered when I enter a title or topic in the box at the top.

 

[FutureBoy]

Wow! Thanks! At least you guys know what you don't know whereas I don't. Is the following correct?

The person who posts a clip can be paid, and the amount is determined by the number of subscribes and likes, because that number affects the cost of the ads that interrupt that clip.

I have not seen a "recommends" bar to the right of the clip, but "Recommendations" means what clips are offered when I enter a title or topic in the box at the top.

The recommends bar I was speaking of is the list of videos that will play next. When you are on the YouTube site watching in a browser, there are a bunch of videos listed to the right of the video you are watching. I’m on my phone at the moment though so don’t see that same set of videos.

But just keep in mind that nothing you see on the internet is shown to you by accident. The only un-calculated portions are the general user who posts something for fun (like much of the content on sites like this) or the general internet user that looks for or browses something on the internet. And in the case of user browsing, much of what the user sees is precalculated predictively so it isn’t even fully random.

As for your question, yes a user CAN be paid for clips they post. There are limitations in that the user content must meet certain content standards (things like Nazi propaganda are not eligible). There are click and subscribe minimums (the user will need to be popular enough for YouTube to pay them). There will need to be relevant advertising (advertisers can target their ads to very specific groups so if the video doesn’t fall into an actively advertised grouping, no ads swill show up). And then the specific video will also need to get enough clicks. Oh and there are “recent” checks. 1 million views or likes over 1 year probably won’t pay anything. 1 million over 1 day probably will.

 

[alan auerbach]

The recommends bar I was speaking of is the list of videos that will play next. When you are on the YouTube site watching in a browser, there are a bunch of videos listed to the right of the video you are watching. I’m on my phone at the moment though so don’t see that same set of videos.

But just keep in mind that nothing you see on the internet is shown to you by accident. The only un-calculated portions are the general user who posts something for fun (like much of the content on sites like this) or the general internet user that looks for or browses something on the internet. And in the case of user browsing, much of what the user sees is precalculated predictively so it isn’t even fully random.

As for your question, yes a user CAN be paid for clips they post. There are limitations in that the user content must meet certain content standards (things like Nazi propaganda are not eligible). There are click and subscribe minimums (the user will need to be popular enough for YouTube to pay them). There will need to be relevant advertising (advertisers can target their ads to very specific groups so if the video doesn’t fall into an actively advertised grouping, no ads swill show up). And then the specific video will also need to get enough clicks. Oh and there are “recent” checks. 1 million views or likes over 1 year probably won’t pay anything. 1 million over 1 day probably will.

"The recommends bar ... is ... listed to the right of the video you are watching."

Thanks -- had pictured an actual bar on the right side of the clip itself. Nor did I picture the column as recommendations (computer selected no less); I assumed they were just all the ones that fit. (The most prevalent ad is Grammerly's -- hard to see its connection with a drone filming the Tesla construction site.)

"Subscribe" presumably means I'll get that person's future clips in my inbox. Would I be able to unsubscribe?

 

[FutureBoy]

"The recommends bar ... is ... listed to the right of the video you are watching."

Thanks -- had pictured an actual bar on the right side of the clip itself. Nor did I picture the column as recommendations (computer selected no less); I assumed they were just all the ones that fit. (The most prevalent ad is Grammerly's -- hard to see its connection with a drone filming the Tesla construction site.)

"Subscribe" presumably means I'll get that person's future clips in my inbox. Would I be able to unsubscribe?

Yes, you can unsubscribe.

Grammarly being there is because Grammarly is currently spending big bucks to advertise to a very broad spectrum of individuals. I’ve even seen TV ads for them. Basically ad spots go to the highest bidder for the specific viewer profile and which marketing groups they belong to. Your viewer profile will be influenced by the fact that you are watching a drone video. But if Grammarly has a wide enough funnel it will still catch you.

Everything on the internet is a give and take so it is beyond human predictability as to what exact ad or recommendation will come up at any one point. But there is nothing random about it.

 

[Crissa]

Subscribe puts them in your 'subscriptions' list, but does not alert you and does not guarantee they show up in your recommends. (And sometimes not even your subscription list.). You need to click the bell icon after subscribing to get notifications in your inbox.

-Crissa

 

[alan auerbach]

Subscribe puts them in your 'subscriptions' list, but does not alert you and does not guarantee they show up in your recommends. (And sometimes not even your subscription list.). You need to click the bell icon after subscribing to get notifications in your inbox.

-Crissa

Thanks so much, both.