YouTube & The Google Plus Fiasco
The news that Youtube that users now have to use Google Plus and other changes that are more aggravating than an improvement
I wasn’t even going to bother to comment on the new goings-on about the latest ‘updates’ Youtube has implemented. Which is ironic since Youtube has made reading, commenting and replying to comments on videos practically impossible. They’re really trying to as they say “keep that conversation going”.
What a joke.
I don’t hate Google Plus – because I do not know what it is. I guess it’s Google’s attempt to compete with Facebook in the social networking site arena. I am not interested in Google Plus. I don’t want to use Google Plus. But ironically I have a Google Plus account since I was forced to create one to continue using Youtube. That should have been a sign.
I never even visited my Google Plus page until today just to see what the heck it is. I would get these occasional notifications that someone is asking me to join their network or something or shared my video on Google Plus. I don’t know anyone who uses Google Plus. The vast majority of opinions I’ve heard about it have nothing positive to say about it. I’m not sure what kind of stuff they offer, but it doesn’t seem like it has a strong following and it’s simply something I am not interested in.
So I finally took a peek at my Google Plus page (a page I was forced into making and would never have done otherwise). It made no sense to me, I left and I probably will not go back. Even the threat of using it to read the most recent comments my videos have gotten is not enough for me to go back. I simply don’t care.
It’s always been fun to read the comments left on my videos by users. It reminds me ‘hey people are watching these things and they have stuff to say’. Even negative comments like Pierce Brosnan fans who completely disagree with everything I say about him and set out to argue that Die Another Day is the best Bond film ever. I enjoy reading them and would gladly allow them to say their piece on the growing number of comments that video would receive.
Now it just seems like such a hassle to even try to find out if I received any new comments. Suddenly that once simple task is made more complicated. I have to log onto Youtube, then onto Google Plus, then I guess go back to Youtube to reply to them, but only if they have a Google Plus account. I have no clue what the process is to actually reply to a comment. What a mess Youtube has become.
In fact I’ve been thinking of just disabling comments altogether from all my videos so I don’t have to deal with this. It wouldn’t matter much to me – I’m probably never even going to be aware that a video got a new comment. And why would they allow links to be posted in the comments and make the amount of space to type a comment unlimited? Can you imagine the field day spammers will have directing users to their latest scam, passing viruses along and doing all that self-promotion crap that is the bane of the internet. What kind of conversation does Google think will be going on?
I’ve been on Youtube like six, seven years on previous channels. It’s been quite awhile. Typically everytime a change has happened it has been greeted with hostility. Most of the changes they’ve done since Google bought Youtube I don’t think have been asked for by anyone. I still have not gotten over the removal of the five-star rating system videos used to get. It was so simple and great and it made finding quality videos so much easier.
You do a search for….say ‘Exorcist Review’ and all these vids would come up with their user ranked star average next to them. You knew if you saw a one-star video it was probably not worth your time and the ones with the higher star rating were probably much better. Bye-bye star ratings, hello Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down. This thumbs crap doesn’t even figure in searches. Now it’s just a collage of random videos that you have to spend the time to click on to find out all on your own what kind of quality they contain. Just take a chance and start wasting time.
Layout changes, channel changes, the Google Plus integration, this new comment mess, I don’t spend anywhere near the time I used to spend on Youtube back in ‘the old days’. I can’t remember the last time I stumbled onto a new channel I liked and subscribed to it. It seems today those smaller niche channels are much harder to discover.
Weeks can go by and I never check in. Now most of my new videos I post on Youtube are trailers for projects to announce their completion, pointing my subscribers to watch them elsewhere. It’s not what I would like, but Youtube has forced me to do it. I’ve just gotten so tired of these Youtube antics it doesn’t bother me anymore.
I am happy to hear the overwhelmingly negative things Youtube users feel about this latest change – even CNN was talking about it. Sadly I highly doubt any of it will alter Google’s direction they’ve decided to take with Youtube. So if you want to remain active on it you’ll just have to be forced to sign up to Google Plus.
I’m so waiting for the day another video posting site comes along and becomes a serious threat to the livelihood of Youtube. A site that will offer all the things to users that Youtube has slowly taken away or completely ruined.
Youtube will always be a major force. It will probably always reign as the top video site in history. I suspect more changes will come and things will get worse though.
It would be nice to have another promising option. Another place (one that is bigger than the ones currently available) that will entice video creators and viewers as an alternative to abandon the Youtube ship. One major site that could potentially cause an exodus of Youtubers to the sanctuary they offer. With that looming over their head, then maybe Youtube/Google will rethink some of their antics and be a little more willing to accommodate their users requests.
I guess the question needs to be asked…
If you could create a hosting site from scratch, what features would it have?
You pretty much covered what it wouldn't have.
"Ok we've got this enormously successful site that people adore and which makes us bucketloads of money without us even trying. What can we do to make it harder to use and frustrating for the people who love it?'
Operation Break What's Not Broken. It's been going on for as long as there's been an internet- remember how every version of America Online was more difficult to navigate than the one it replaced? Anyone out there like the new "pop up window" you need to write a letter on gmail now?
I deleted my YouTube videos and closed my account. I'm in the process of closing my gmail account. Google+ is useless, I don't want it and won't be forced into using it.
I know sometimes large hits can be due to misleading titles, but a large hit number can usually indicate a good quality video. For instance you want to see as you say in your example "Exorcist Review" and then get confused what one is best to watch. If several come up from different up loaders in results ….well the the one that has by far the largest hits is usually the best one to watch, because it has been trialed and tested and recommended and shared etc from previous searchers . this i assume most users would know already .