youtube's new format

[sonak]

I do not like it. Why was it changed? Is it some kind of revenue thing? Change for the sake of change?

It annoyed me so much I had to eat three bowls of Count Chocula cereal just to make myself feel better. Then I got a tummyache. And then I returned to youtube and the format still sucked.

I was looking for a sad-face emoticon but don't see one. will have to do even though it's more "confusion" than "sadness."


I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

There's some spare sad faces for you to use. Use them wisely. Use them well.

YouTube looks only barely different to me than it did yesterday. I can't really tell. I'm almost never on the front page anyway.

 

[tomalak301]

Youtube and Facebook are so similar in that they make changes when they really don't need to. I'm fine with change (Hell, I've been wanting this board to make some kind of change for a while now), but when it's so drastic you're confused on what is going on (Such as Facebook, where now I barely remember what it was when I first signed up), than that's not good.

 

[Kemaiku]

The look doesn't bother me at all, it looks pretty good.

What annoys me is the new coding used for the search function that returns any enquiries with the most popular videos, never the most relevant anymore, regardless of what search terms you use.

 

[Trekker4747]

You Tube seems the same to me.

(Bu the way, if you wanted a "sad face" emotiocon you could've done what people have been doing for years and typed a colon followed by an open parenthesis.)

 

[trekkiedane]

YouTube looks only barely different to me than it did yesterday. I can't really tell. I'm almost never on the front page anyway.

YouTube has a Front page?

I didn't know that! -I always come via 'Search' in my browser...

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's been like that since about a month or two now, unless you're referring to something else about the format.

 

[sonak]

It's been like that since about a month or two now, unless you're referring to something else about the format.

no, I guess I'm just unobservant and slow. Still sucks, though.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ No, it changed yesterday, on the 7th. My nice page with my featured video in extra large size and my other videos listed on the right with favorites below turned into a Twitter-like "feed" that interspersed my activity (subscriptions, likes and so on) with my original content-- putting my original content way down on the list. Awful.

I changed a bit of the customization this morning, which made it look a bit more presentable, but I have to look at what other customization options are available. I want a nice home page with all my stuff again.

 

[Owain Taggart]

^^ No, it changed yesterday, on the 7th. My nice page with my featured video in extra large size and my other videos listed on the right with favorites below turned into a Twitter-like "feed" that interspersed my activity (subscriptions, likes and so on) with my original content-- putting my original content way down on the list. Awful.

I changed a bit of the customization this morning, which made it look a bit more presentable, but I have to look at what other customization options are available. I want a nice home page with all my stuff again.

Yeah, that's the format I'm talking about. It's been like that for me for quite awhile now. There was a big stink when they originally rolled it out. I think there might have even been a thread about it. The new format is heavier with advertisements, currently advertising John Carter right at the top with an embedded video. Or are you talking about the user page itself rather than the front page?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Mostly my user page. There are some customization options, so I've got it looking better than it was. I just haven't been able to figure out how to show my subscribers and subscriptions yet. It's a pain in the neck.

 

[Rachet]

youtube often causes my browser to crash..

(KICKS it down the stairs.)

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I had (past tense) a very nice YouTube page with a customized background, a featured video I selected specifically for a particular reason, etc. Now, it's just a generic feed that decides for me what is important and what is not. Very annoying.

But then, I have not been happy with YouTube for a few months. I really loved the friends feature they had, but they did away with that - now you have to subscribe to people...and I just didn't want to do that. So I lost all of my 200 YouTube friends and now no longer have access to them, or the ability to chat with them about our common fandoms, etc.

This was made still worse by the fact that the search engine no longer works properly. I get all kinds of top 40 junk when I am looking for bands that I like - stuff that is not even remotely related. Not even the same genre.

My guess is that their search engine is now coded to generate maximum revenue for YouTube - not give you legitimate results.

Finally, YouTube is now a part of Google's personal info sharing 'privacy' (or lack thereof, really) policy. Now they consolidate everything they can glean about you from Gmail, Google+. Google Docs, YouTube, etc...so that they can better target you for ads and shit....and probably sell your info to others. That is just LAME.

Because of all this, I no longer even log in to YouTube when I use it. My account is now pretty much useless for what I used to use it for, so why bother to allow them to gather intel on me easily? I suppose they still can via my ISP address...but I'll at least make them have to work for the intel, since they obviously don't give a shit about their users anymore. Or our privacy.

I was never a big user of Google+, and all of these changes have cemented my plan of not using that service. Ditto Google Docs. I'm also gonna get off of Gmail too. My email is none of their business, and I no longer trust them.

They claim your browsing history in Chrome is not a part of the 'privacy' policy...but I'm not believing them. After the last upgrade, I went back to Firefox for most things...but now I'll be deleting Chrome completely.

Google is a company that has lost my trust and consumer confidence.

 

[Yevetha]

Any chance that they will change it back?

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Possibly, if enough of us complain. Or at least they might give us more customization options.

I had (past tense) a very nice YouTube page with a customized background, a featured video I selected specifically for a particular reason, etc. Now, it's just a generic feed that decides for me what is important and what is not. Very annoying.

You can get rid of the feed. If you go into "Edit Channel" and enable the "Featured" tab, you have four templates to choose from. They're lame, but better than the feed. Click on the link in my sig to see.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^^ Possibly, if enough of us complain. Or at least they might give us more customization options.

I had (past tense) a very nice YouTube page with a customized background, a featured video I selected specifically for a particular reason, etc. Now, it's just a generic feed that decides for me what is important and what is not. Very annoying.

You can get rid of the feed. If you go into "Edit Channel" and enable the "Featured" tab, you have four templates to choose from. They're lame, but better than the feed. Click on the link in my sig to see.

See...that is better than mine, for sure....but it just looks so 'corporate'. Too clean and square. It feels much to antiseptic for music videos...which is what I used YouTube for. Too clean and tidy and cold and boring and non-descript vanilla. No opportunity for flair.

It's not your fault, of course - it's theirs. But why they thought this format change would be a good idea is beyond me.

Although maybe their next step is to charge users for the ability to customize. In fact, I bet that's what they do next. Give us the opportunity to have our pages back the way we want them...for a 'small annual fee'. Otherwise, you get non-descript and boring. I bet they limit our playlists and stuff too. You get 5 for free or something...but have to pay for any additional ones.

And yes: I'm cynical about Google.

 

[RJDiogenes]

It's not your fault, of course - it's theirs. But why they thought this format change would be a good idea is beyond me.

I completely agree with you. I'd love to have the old style back or the ability to customize more extensively. But at least it's better than that horrible Twitter-style feed.

Although maybe their next step is to charge users for the ability to customize.

I wouldn't object to that; I don't mind paying a reasonable fee for services. In fact, I plan to switch to a paid account on deviantArt soon, since I've found it so useful and even made a bit of money from the jigsaw puzzles (of course, I get a lot more hits, faves and comments on deviantArt thanI do on YouTube for some reason).

 

[Random_Spock]

Although maybe their next step is to charge users for the ability to customize. In fact, I bet that's what they do next. Give us the opportunity to have our pages back the way we want them...for a 'small annual fee'. Otherwise, you get non-descript and boring. I bet they limit our playlists and stuff too. You get 5 for free or something...but have to pay for any additional ones.

And yes: I'm cynical about Google.

Not a fan of that kind of thing. Heck I'd owe them quite a bit of money if they put a limit on playlists...

*Not that I even use my account that much anymore... after they merged with Google, I've been having a heckuva time even getting onto my account ... so much so, that I don't really log into it anymore...*

Only stuff that I do on there, is delete some old stuff from it, other than that, it isn't really worth that much to me.

@ RJDiogenes: Reasonable is one thing, but if it's any more than that, it would be insane. Wouldn't pay much more than $14 for a service from any online site (unless it's a online storage service, like Carbonite), it's not really worth it.

I had (past tense) a very nice YouTube page with a customized background, a featured video I selected specifically for a particular reason, etc. Now, it's just a generic feed that decides for me what is important and what is not. Very annoying.

But then, I have not been happy with YouTube for a few months. I really loved the friends feature they had, but they did away with that - now you have to subscribe to people...and I just didn't want to do that. So I lost all of my 200 YouTube friends and now no longer have access to them, or the ability to chat with them about our common fandoms, etc.

This was made still worse by the fact that the search engine no longer works properly. I get all kinds of top 40 junk when I am looking for bands that I like - stuff that is not even remotely related. Not even the same genre.

My guess is that their search engine is now coded to generate maximum revenue for YouTube - not give you legitimate results.

Finally, YouTube is now a part of Google's personal info sharing 'privacy' (or lack thereof, really) policy. Now they consolidate everything they can glean about you from Gmail, Google+. Google Docs, YouTube, etc...so that they can better target you for ads and shit....and probably sell your info to others. That is just LAME.

Because of all this, I no longer even log in to YouTube when I use it. My account is now pretty much useless for what I used to use it for, so why bother to allow them to gather intel on me easily? I suppose they still can via my ISP address...but I'll at least make them have to work for the intel, since they obviously don't give a shit about their users anymore. Or our privacy.

I was never a big user of Google+, and all of these changes have cemented my plan of not using that service. Ditto Google Docs. I'm also gonna get off of Gmail too. My email is none of their business, and I no longer trust them.

They claim your browsing history in Chrome is not a part of the 'privacy' policy...but I'm not believing them. After the last upgrade, I went back to Firefox for most things...but now I'll be deleting Chrome completely.

Google is a company that has lost my trust and consumer confidence.

That really stinks . All of that hard work gone down the drain. Talk about a big misstep by them... -_- They're going to lose a lot of people due to that and some of the other stuff you mentioned above. That must not be good for their overall business model -- aside from making them money.

Ditto. I only use Google to search and never had an g-mail account, and after this, I'd never get one. As for Youtube, like I said before, I hardly even use mine and when I watch videos, it's when I'm not on my account. I don't even take any chances in terms of that, it's not worth it. There's some stuff that should remain private, and Google has pretty much crossed the line there.

 

[RJDiogenes]

@ RJDiogenes: Reasonable is one thing, but if it's any more than that, it would be insane. Wouldn't pay much more than $14 for a service from any online site (unless it's a online storage service, like Carbonite), it's not really worth it.

Well, sure, I'll have to feel their price is worth it, once I see what it is. I certainly get a lot more action on deviantArt and even make a little money from it. On YouTube, my stuff gets very little attention (with the exception of the dinosaur video).

 

[farmkid]

I don't mind the new format of the Youtube page so much. It's different, but I wasn't ever in love with what it was before, so this doesn't really bother me.

What does bother me is that they've changed how videos are downloaded. Until recently, I used to be able to get Youtube videos by going into the browser cache after a video downloads and finding the .flv file of the video there. A simple copy and rename, and there it is, saved on your hard drive. I didn't do that a lot, but every once in a while I would do that if I needed access to a video offline for some reason. Some time recently they have changed how that happens and now the videos are broken up into 1740 KB pieces. I can't now just go into the cache and get the file. I suppose if I get desperate enough I'll figure out how to join the pieces back together or some other solution, but for now I'm just annoyed.