1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:12,160 Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from half stuff works dot com. 2 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 3 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here at how Stuff 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,759 Speaker 1: Works and I love technology, and today we're going to 5 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: cover the final part of our three part episode on YouTube, 6 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: the YouTube Story. There's a ton of stuff has happened 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 1: over the relatively short number a short time that YouTube 8 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:39,520 Speaker 1: has been around, but it's important to talk about because 9 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: YouTube has had such a huge impact on multiple aspects 10 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: of culture in general and online culture in particular. Now, 11 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: when we left off in the last episode, it was 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 1: the beginning of twelve and YouTube had announced the launch 13 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: of premium channels. In this episode, we're gonna follow up 14 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: on that and catch up onto what YouTube has been 15 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,840 Speaker 1: up in recent years. So let's first jump right back 16 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:07,320 Speaker 1: into the CEO. Salacamonga had announced a push toward the 17 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: lean back viewing experience. Now, this is a concept that 18 00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:15,040 Speaker 1: was carried over from television. The idea is to create 19 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,280 Speaker 1: a slate of programming that encourages a viewer to stick 20 00:01:18,319 --> 00:01:22,399 Speaker 1: with the experience and continue watching once your selected video ends. 21 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: The television example of this would be something like the 22 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: must See TV strategy for YouTube and meant tweaking algorithms 23 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: so that viewers would be prompted to watch a related 24 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: video to the one they just finished, one that would 25 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: presumably meet their preferences and encourage them to stay with 26 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:43,560 Speaker 1: the platform. One thing YouTube tried to do to encourage 27 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: more binging activity was to change up how it determined 28 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: which videos it should recommend to users in the first place. Now, 29 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: in the past, the videos that got lots of clicks, 30 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:58,080 Speaker 1: those viral hits of yesteryear, were given extra love. They 31 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: were put in a prominent place on YouTube landing page 32 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,200 Speaker 1: so that you were more likely to click on them. So, 33 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: in other words, if you shot a video and it 34 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: got a lot of attention early on, you were rewarded. 35 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,239 Speaker 1: You've got more prominent placement on YouTube's landing pages. Thus 36 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,119 Speaker 1: you got even more opportunities together views, and it could 37 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:18,400 Speaker 1: just skyrocket from there. On the surface, that seems like 38 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: a pretty solid idea, because people are clearly already drawn 39 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,040 Speaker 1: to watching that popular video, so giving it a better 40 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: position would drive even more traffic, right, But the folks 41 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: at YouTube saw how this could be a problem, and 42 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 1: it's a problem that stretches well beyond YouTube itself, because 43 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: focusing on that metric made it really hard to convert 44 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:45,000 Speaker 1: people from watching one video to watching more than one video. 45 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: And what's worse, you couldn't guarantee that all those views 46 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: meant someone watched a video all the way through. So 47 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: if I click on a video and decide within the 48 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: first ten seconds it's not really a video for me, 49 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: and I click away, my view still counts, but it 50 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:03,240 Speaker 1: may not mean that that video is particularly good. It 51 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,560 Speaker 1: may mean that the title or the thumbnail was really 52 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: interesting or really enticing, and that's why I got me 53 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: to click. And once I saw that what I thought 54 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: I was getting was not what I actually got, I 55 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: clicked out. Well, you don't want to reward that because 56 00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: it's not a great user experience. So YouTube decided that 57 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:26,079 Speaker 1: the best way to convert people into watching multiple videos 58 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 1: was to look at watch time on videos, as in, 59 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: how much overall time did people spend watching that video. 60 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,280 Speaker 1: So if you uploaded a twenty minute video and people 61 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: were only watching the first thirty seconds, chances are that 62 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:42,360 Speaker 1: video would just sink to the bottom of YouTube's vast 63 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: library under this new regime. But if you uploaded a 64 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: twenty minute video and people were on average watching at 65 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 1: least nineteen minutes of it. That suggested the video you 66 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: uploaded had real value to it. So YouTube began to 67 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:59,400 Speaker 1: shift and promote videos that had longer engagement times rather 68 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: than just a lot of hits. And as I said, 69 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: websites across the Internet we're struggling with this same problem. 70 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:10,240 Speaker 1: If you run a site, let's even use how Stuff 71 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:14,120 Speaker 1: works as an example. Your ideal situation is that someone 72 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: comes to your site to learn something cool. They read 73 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: a specific article, then they noticed that there's all this 74 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: other cool stuff on the website, and they spend a 75 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:25,480 Speaker 1: good amount of time exploring. People who have gone to 76 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 1: Wikipedia and said, oh yeah, I went down a rabbit hole. 77 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: I started clicking on links and learning about thing after 78 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 1: thing after thing. That's what we're talking about. That level 79 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 1: of engagement. While you don't want to see is someone 80 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:39,960 Speaker 1: coming to your site and then they bounce after they 81 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:42,760 Speaker 1: read one article, or worse, they read part of an 82 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: article and then they bounce. They don't even click all 83 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 1: the way through. So YouTube's change in policy opened up 84 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:52,559 Speaker 1: the door to a new type of YouTube celebrity, being 85 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: the gamer. Now, don't get me wrong, people had been 86 00:04:55,560 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: uploading video game footage with or without commentary for years, 87 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:03,880 Speaker 1: and only a few YouTubers had really gathered a large 88 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,280 Speaker 1: following through the process. But with this change in policy 89 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 1: came an unexpected consequence. Video game related videos began to 90 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,760 Speaker 1: rise in the ranks, and that's because of a few 91 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:18,600 Speaker 1: different reasons that relate to video games and video game audiences. 92 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 1: For one thing, the audiences were wanting to watch a 93 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,839 Speaker 1: complete video of their favorite personalities or their favorite games. 94 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: Then audiences of other videos were so if you have 95 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: a video where there's a particularly charismatic gamer or there's 96 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:38,960 Speaker 1: a really cool game on their people were more likely 97 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,039 Speaker 1: to watch it all the way through. It became a 98 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: real career path for some people to create video game 99 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,360 Speaker 1: related content and uploaded to YouTube, because if you could 100 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:49,279 Speaker 1: find an audience of a decent size and the stuff 101 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: you uploaded was entertaining enough, you can see your videos 102 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:56,320 Speaker 1: receive a lot more love because again, your videos tended 103 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,440 Speaker 1: to be longer. Let's play, video in a video game 104 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,640 Speaker 1: might be fifteen minutes or forty five minutes or an 105 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,400 Speaker 1: hour or even longer than that, and if people are 106 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: watching all the way through. Because of YouTube's new ranking system, 107 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,440 Speaker 1: you would be given preferential treatment because you had a 108 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,479 Speaker 1: greater amount of watch time for your video. So we 109 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:18,919 Speaker 1: started seeing these let's play videos, which would follow a 110 00:06:18,960 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: gamer's experiences as he or she played through a game 111 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,559 Speaker 1: on a regular basis, and those videos had a built 112 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,400 Speaker 1: in story progression. In fact, I had a double layer 113 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,720 Speaker 1: story progression because you had the story within the game 114 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: itself what is actually happening as the game unfolds, and 115 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:37,280 Speaker 1: you had the story of the gamer's journey. What is 116 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:39,800 Speaker 1: happening to the gamer? Is he or she controls a 117 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:44,360 Speaker 1: character or other element within this game. Now, we humans 118 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,159 Speaker 1: love a good story, and we hate it when a 119 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:50,720 Speaker 1: story gets left off right as you're getting to an 120 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:54,040 Speaker 1: interesting moment. And if we were a little further into 121 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:55,960 Speaker 1: this episode, I'd be a smart alec and I would 122 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: put an ad break right here. But we're not there yet, 123 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: so I'll just keep going. So let's play videos encouraged 124 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: viewers to watch the whole video, and they inspired binge watching, 125 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: as viewers wanted to see an entire story from beginning 126 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: to end. So let's say you start an episodic game 127 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,840 Speaker 1: or a game that has a very long play through 128 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: one episode might be an hour, and it might represent 129 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: only a fraction of the entire game, and your next 130 00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: episode is the next hour of that game play. Well, 131 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: if someone discovers your videos and they like you, they 132 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,480 Speaker 1: might start binging from beginning to end. They want to 133 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,160 Speaker 1: see the whole thing, and they're eagerly awaiting the next chapter. 134 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: So those pretty long videos would end up getting massive 135 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: rankings in YouTube results. You would land on the landing 136 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: page and see them at the very top. The combination 137 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 1: of features meant that the metrics of the YouTube algorithm 138 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: were all being pinned by let's play videos, and they 139 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:54,200 Speaker 1: began to take over all of YouTube, including the homepage. 140 00:07:54,200 --> 00:07:57,400 Speaker 1: In fact, at some points, fIF or more of the 141 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,240 Speaker 1: videos featured on the homepage where game being related videos. 142 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 1: And out of all of those games there was one 143 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: that was really dominating, and that one was Minecraft. Now, 144 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 1: at this point, I have to give a shout out 145 00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: to a YouTube channel called The Game Theorists. It's a 146 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:20,880 Speaker 1: really good YouTube channel. The guy does an excellent job 147 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:26,840 Speaker 1: breaking down elements of games and game culture, and he 148 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: did a great episode about this very topic. He really 149 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:32,920 Speaker 1: dives into the change of the YouTube algorithm and the 150 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,839 Speaker 1: effects it had on the platform in general, as well 151 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,040 Speaker 1: as the launch of a brand new industry in video 152 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:44,199 Speaker 1: game videos that really didn't have a lot of traction 153 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: up to that point. He has an episode titled game Theory, 154 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 1: How Minecraft Broke YouTube, and it was extremely helpful and 155 00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 1: it's also entertaining, so you should check it out. As 156 00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 1: the game theorist points out, YouTube's change in its algorithm 157 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:02,280 Speaker 1: would lead to game dominating that homepage for a few years, 158 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:06,920 Speaker 1: until YouTube executives made a conscious decision to course correct 159 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:10,640 Speaker 1: in mid two thousand fifteen and filter all those gaming 160 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,839 Speaker 1: videos out of those home pages. We'll talk more about 161 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,840 Speaker 1: that a little bit later. Now. There were some other 162 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:21,200 Speaker 1: unintended consequences of this change in policy. For one thing, 163 00:09:21,559 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: shorter videos had a harder time getting discovered because you 164 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: had a system that was rewarding videos for the amount 165 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,200 Speaker 1: of time that was spent watching those videos. A one 166 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:36,239 Speaker 1: minute animated short couldn't compete with a fifteen minute Minecraft video, 167 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:38,560 Speaker 1: And the same was true for artists who uploaded cover 168 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 1: songs or short performances. Anything that was less than ten 169 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,000 Speaker 1: minutes was going to have a harder time showing up 170 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: as a recommended video. Simply because it was not as 171 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,520 Speaker 1: long as those longer pieces that had really good engagement. 172 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 1: So that was another argument against this. It wasn't just 173 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:58,080 Speaker 1: that video game footage and video game content was taking 174 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:03,000 Speaker 1: over YouTube. It was that suddenly things that were legitimately 175 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:08,520 Speaker 1: well made and entertaining we're not surfacing because the length 176 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:11,959 Speaker 1: was a detriment. The algorithm was punishing these videos in 177 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:15,520 Speaker 1: effect because they were too too short, and that was 178 00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:19,240 Speaker 1: a problem. YouTube also updated its YouTube TV feature to 179 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: create a more user friendly experience for people watching YouTube 180 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,800 Speaker 1: on their television screens, which was good because more devices 181 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: and even televisions were starting to support YouTube content. But 182 00:10:29,679 --> 00:10:33,440 Speaker 1: navigating a user interface on a television is a different 183 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: experience than on a mobile device or a PC. You 184 00:10:36,679 --> 00:10:39,280 Speaker 1: typically don't have a mouse and keyboard, so finding the 185 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:41,600 Speaker 1: right way to navigate the app so that you encourage 186 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:45,439 Speaker 1: people to use it rather than frustrate them is pretty challenging, 187 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:47,680 Speaker 1: and figuring out how to do it so that each 188 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:50,559 Speaker 1: instance of the app is optimized for the specific viewing 189 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:54,640 Speaker 1: experience of the user adds even more difficulty. Two thousand 190 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:57,720 Speaker 1: twelve was also an Olympics year, and YouTube partnered with 191 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:01,640 Speaker 1: NBC for the London Olympics to provide live streaming of events. 192 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:04,160 Speaker 1: This was a departure from the way Olympics coverage had 193 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:06,040 Speaker 1: worked in the past. It used to be back in 194 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: the day that the way you'd watched the Olympics is 195 00:11:08,160 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: you'd have to wait for a localized broadcast of Olympics 196 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:14,920 Speaker 1: coverage well after the actual events had happened. But in 197 00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: the era of Twitter and Facebook and the Internet in general, 198 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: it became impossible to avoid spoilers. With this time delay approach. 199 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:24,840 Speaker 1: You would find out that people had one or lost 200 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:27,880 Speaker 1: in their respective Olympic events, and you'd still have to 201 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:30,480 Speaker 1: wait hours before you could actually watch it, which didn't 202 00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:33,640 Speaker 1: really give you an incentive to tune in. TV networks 203 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:36,600 Speaker 1: had experimented with some streaming services in the past, but 204 00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:39,240 Speaker 1: two thousand twelve marked the first time that YouTube was 205 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:42,959 Speaker 1: being used as a primary outlet for Olympics coverage. This 206 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: was a tall order because at times there were up 207 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 1: to a hundred different feeds populating YouTube, providing live footage 208 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,679 Speaker 1: of different events, and that wasn't the only live event 209 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:55,200 Speaker 1: YouTube covered in two thousand twelve. It also served as 210 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:59,160 Speaker 1: a platform for more presidential debates and eight million people 211 00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: watched YouTube live to witness Felix baum Gartner's space jump 212 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: that happened on October two thou twelve. That event set 213 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 1: the record for the largest number of concurrent viewers for 214 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:14,360 Speaker 1: a single YouTube live event. Now the top videos of 215 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:17,439 Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, apart from gandam Style, which I've already mentioned, 216 00:12:17,679 --> 00:12:21,200 Speaker 1: including Walked Off the Earth's cover of Somebody that I 217 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:23,839 Speaker 1: Used to Know by Got You walk Off the Earth. 218 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:26,120 Speaker 1: There's a group that makes creative music videos and finds 219 00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: complicated ways to play songs, so in that example, it 220 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:33,200 Speaker 1: involved five people playing the song on a single guitar. 221 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:36,079 Speaker 1: It's a fun video and it's also a fun band 222 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:38,280 Speaker 1: that writes original music, so you should check them out 223 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: if you haven't heard of them. There are other big 224 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,319 Speaker 1: videos that came out that year. Call Me Maybe by 225 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: Carl ray Jepson was another popular video that complimented the 226 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:50,120 Speaker 1: earworm of a song. Epic Rap Battles posted a win 227 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: with their Battle of Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney episode, 228 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:57,880 Speaker 1: and not all popular videos were for pure entertainment. One 229 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 1: that ended up getting a lot of views was a 230 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: documentary titled Coney two thousand twelve. This was a documentary 231 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:08,679 Speaker 1: that detailed the effort to capture Joseph Coney, a Ugandan 232 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,679 Speaker 1: military leader who had been indicted for war crimes. Now, 233 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,520 Speaker 1: the documentary sparked a heated debate not just about the 234 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:20,320 Speaker 1: particulars of the case, but about online activism. Some critics 235 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,920 Speaker 1: said that the documentary bordered on slacktivism, which is when 236 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,280 Speaker 1: you take an action that ultimately has no real impact 237 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:30,280 Speaker 1: on the outcome of a situation, but it gives you 238 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:34,520 Speaker 1: the satisfaction of feeling as if you've accomplished something. So 239 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:38,440 Speaker 1: selactivism is a real problem. Many movements online don't really 240 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:40,960 Speaker 1: amount to anything more than just that simple feeling that 241 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,080 Speaker 1: you've supported a cause you believe in, but you haven't 242 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: actually done anything. But there are others who argued that 243 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,200 Speaker 1: the video helped bring attention to a real crisis in 244 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:54,000 Speaker 1: Uganda and wasn't sla activism at all. As for Coney himself, 245 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:57,240 Speaker 1: he is still at large in Uganda, although his support 246 00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,920 Speaker 1: has reportedly diminished significantly. At the hight of his influence, 247 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:06,240 Speaker 1: he commanded thousands of guerilla soldiers. Today it's supposedly closer 248 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 1: to a hundred. Now let's segue into but you know 249 00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 1: what before I jump into that, how would I take 250 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:23,120 Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor? All right, now 251 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:27,600 Speaker 1: we're in and YouTube I mentioned earlier had sort of 252 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,400 Speaker 1: launched an award show, but they had quietly shuffled it off. 253 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:34,400 Speaker 1: It was called the YouTube Awards, and after two thousand 254 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: and eight they really didn't talk about it anymore. They 255 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: didn't really bother to do them again, but in the 256 00:14:40,640 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 1: company launched a new awards show called the YouTube Music 257 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:46,880 Speaker 1: Awards or y t m A. Nominees were announced on 258 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: October two thirteen. They included a lot of different people, 259 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:54,479 Speaker 1: but some of the nominees were Demi Lavado, Lady Gaga, 260 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: Justin Bieber, and Epic Rap Battles of History, among others. 261 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: The winner for Video of the Year was I Got 262 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,200 Speaker 1: a Boy by a group called Girls Generation, which I 263 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: had never heard of. Do you hear about them? Ramsey? 264 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: Ramsey shaking his head, no, he also has not heard 265 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:11,760 Speaker 1: of them. Well, it just shows that our K pop 266 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: knowledge is severely lacking. It's a Korean band, so I've 267 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:18,200 Speaker 1: heard some K pop, but I did not know about 268 00:15:18,200 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: this group. So I apologize for my ignorance. But apparently, 269 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,040 Speaker 1: UH pretty good group at least, it got a lot 270 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,400 Speaker 1: of traction and won the award that year. YouTube tried 271 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:32,120 Speaker 1: to get into paid subscription services in two thousand thirteen 272 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:35,760 Speaker 1: with the launch of about thirty paid premium channels. These 273 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:40,480 Speaker 1: channels included everything from Sesame Street to UFC events, hopefully 274 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,440 Speaker 1: without any crossover, although that would be amazing. It covers 275 00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 1: a pretty broad spectrum. Obviously, on the low end of 276 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: the scale, some of these channels were asking for ninety 277 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: nine cents for a monthly subscription. According to Variety, the 278 00:15:54,640 --> 00:15:58,400 Speaker 1: average was closer to two dollars cents a month now. 279 00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,080 Speaker 1: A lot of those channels focused on family friendly content, 280 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:05,560 Speaker 1: much of it specifically aimed at younger kids. The initiative 281 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:09,560 Speaker 1: didn't really catch on with customers, however. Variety followed up 282 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: the launch with a story in July two thous thirteen 283 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:16,200 Speaker 1: that stated many of those premium channels hadn't seen very 284 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: much subscriber activity at all. National Geographic VP of Global 285 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:24,320 Speaker 1: Strategy Adam Sutherland summed up as company's perspective with the quote, 286 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: we had hoped to set the world on fire. We 287 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,840 Speaker 1: are not setting the world on fire right now. End quote. 288 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,240 Speaker 1: Mark Cuban gave a similar response with regards to a 289 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 1: YouTube premium channel called hd net, saying it was quote working, okay, 290 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:45,440 Speaker 1: not amazing end quote. YouTube had hoped that these subscription 291 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: model channels would provide another source of revenue on top 292 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: of ad money and rentals, but viewers were not flocking 293 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:56,640 Speaker 1: to this new alaca cart service, and eventually all the 294 00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,560 Speaker 1: way up in the seventeen so just last year, YouTube 295 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:02,800 Speaker 1: would find a phase out this experiment entirely. By then, 296 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:06,200 Speaker 1: the company had introduced a different subscription service called YouTube Bread. 297 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:08,240 Speaker 1: But while chat about that more when we get there, 298 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 1: another failed experiment in two thousand thirteen really backfired on 299 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,439 Speaker 1: YouTube and Google. It was in that Google made the 300 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:20,080 Speaker 1: decision to unite YouTube with Google Plus. Now in part, 301 00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:22,879 Speaker 1: this was an effort to cut down on trolling and 302 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,720 Speaker 1: abuse by requiring YouTube users to register with the service 303 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:29,600 Speaker 1: using their real names. To have a Google Plus account, 304 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:32,040 Speaker 1: you had to use your actual name, at least initially, 305 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: and so thought YouTube executives. YouTube commenters would have all 306 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:41,439 Speaker 1: their comments tied to their actual identities. This, they thought 307 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:45,040 Speaker 1: would cut down on extreme cases of abuse and trolling, 308 00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,800 Speaker 1: because anything you said would be linked to you as 309 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 1: a person and not just a handle that may or 310 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:53,679 Speaker 1: may not belong to you. Now, I haven't really touched 311 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:57,440 Speaker 1: on it in these episodes, but YouTube comments have long 312 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,919 Speaker 1: been seen as one of the pits of user engagement online. 313 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: YouTube comments are often the ones held up as saying 314 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:08,760 Speaker 1: this is an example of a bad experience for a 315 00:18:08,800 --> 00:18:12,600 Speaker 1: content creator. That's not to say that all content creators 316 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,720 Speaker 1: get terrible comments from YouTube users, but it does happen 317 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:20,000 Speaker 1: frequently enough that the phrase never read the comments has 318 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:25,240 Speaker 1: become pretty common common parlance in the online world now. 319 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,480 Speaker 1: The response to this particular move of YouTube and Google 320 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:32,919 Speaker 1: Plus logins being merged was extremely negative among a large 321 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: population for different reasons. Some people were angry that their handles, 322 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:40,760 Speaker 1: which they had possessed for ages, were going to be 323 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,399 Speaker 1: stripped away. They had built a lot of time and 324 00:18:43,440 --> 00:18:47,479 Speaker 1: effort into developing a persona that was represented by a handle. 325 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:52,000 Speaker 1: Some were arguing that the anonymity offered by YouTube's previous 326 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:55,719 Speaker 1: policy allowed people to more honestly communicate with the outside world, 327 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: and even offered up protection up from potentially oppressive regimes 328 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,719 Speaker 1: that could punish someone for speaking out against them online. So, 329 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 1: in other words, if you force someone to tie their 330 00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:11,720 Speaker 1: actual identity to their YouTube profile and they upload a 331 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:16,199 Speaker 1: video that is somewhat critical of an oppressive regime, they 332 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,680 Speaker 1: could end up getting targeted by that regime. That was 333 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:24,119 Speaker 1: a real concern. Others were worried about an online brand 334 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,359 Speaker 1: they had established through years of work and content creation. 335 00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:29,800 Speaker 1: So let's say that it's a person who is known 336 00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:33,720 Speaker 1: by a particular nickname. Put pie is a good example. 337 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,480 Speaker 1: They said, well, that's where all my value is. Don't 338 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,600 Speaker 1: make me give that up. And many accused Google of 339 00:19:39,640 --> 00:19:43,240 Speaker 1: trying to artificially boost the popularity of Google Plus by 340 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 1: requiring YouTube users to create a profile on this languishing 341 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,359 Speaker 1: social networking site. I mean, and to be that last 342 00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:53,640 Speaker 1: accusation holds the ring of truth because I remember when 343 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: Google Plus was in beta, the only people who were 344 00:19:56,520 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 1: on it were entrepreneurs and tech journalists. So I was 345 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: one of those people, and initially it was great. I 346 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,120 Speaker 1: loved using it because it felt like I knew everyone, 347 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:10,760 Speaker 1: or at least knew of everyone who was on the platform. 348 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,360 Speaker 1: When Google Plus opened up to everyone, there was an 349 00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:16,639 Speaker 1: initial flood of new users. Everyone was eager to be 350 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:18,680 Speaker 1: part of this new thing, and that was a big 351 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:21,760 Speaker 1: problem for a lot of those early adopters. Now, it 352 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:25,320 Speaker 1: wasn't just that there was an element of exclusivity with 353 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:28,159 Speaker 1: Google Plus in those early days, although that was definitely 354 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,680 Speaker 1: part of the appeal. It was that this small population 355 00:20:31,760 --> 00:20:34,000 Speaker 1: made it much easier to connect with people in a 356 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:37,439 Speaker 1: relatively narrow niche. So I could network with lots of 357 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:40,000 Speaker 1: people in tech journalism pretty effectively because we were the 358 00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: only ones on Google Plus. But as the new people 359 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,160 Speaker 1: found out, and as most of us already had figured out, 360 00:20:47,440 --> 00:20:50,720 Speaker 1: Google Plus did not have enough to differentiate it from 361 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:54,960 Speaker 1: other social platforms like Facebook. So the question became, why 362 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: would you move from Facebook, where nearly everyone you knew 363 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:02,639 Speaker 1: already had a profile to go to Google Plus. It 364 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:06,200 Speaker 1: didn't set itself apart enough to really have its own 365 00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:10,159 Speaker 1: strong appeal, and so once those floodgates open, the limited 366 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,240 Speaker 1: use case of a social networking platform for tech journalist 367 00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:16,800 Speaker 1: nerds like myself was eradicated. So Google found itself with 368 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:19,760 Speaker 1: a big social network platform with a lack of users 369 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:24,399 Speaker 1: and a lack of engagement. Thus, requiring YouTubers to join 370 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,639 Speaker 1: Google Plus might have been seen as a hail Mary 371 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,520 Speaker 1: pass to try and get something going on the social 372 00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: network site. The man that move was met with major resistance. 373 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 1: People hated it, and it wasn't just the commenters, but 374 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:45,679 Speaker 1: also the creators. Eventually, in Google would officially back down 375 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:48,800 Speaker 1: from this policy and no longer require YouTubers to have 376 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:52,240 Speaker 1: a Google Plus account. Bradley Horowitz, who was the vice 377 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: president of Streams, Photos and Sharing, would create an official 378 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:59,520 Speaker 1: Google blog post stating that users wouldn't need a Google 379 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 1: Plus pro file to access Google services anymore, and that 380 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:06,320 Speaker 1: YouTube would be the first platform that would see rollouts 381 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:10,680 Speaker 1: of those changes now. The videos that were really popular 382 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:16,560 Speaker 1: in two thousand thirteen included the infamous music video what 383 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: does the Fox Say? By TV nor Man. We really 384 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,879 Speaker 1: love our novelty songs on YouTube. Also, do you remember 385 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:29,199 Speaker 1: the Harlem Shake I Do? That was a meme that 386 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:32,520 Speaker 1: lasted for about a month and then kept on going 387 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,320 Speaker 1: for a month too long. Harlem Shake videos first really 388 00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:41,440 Speaker 1: got their their go in Uh. There was a comedic 389 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 1: video about how animals eat their food, which is absolutely ludicrous, 390 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:49,880 Speaker 1: and I have to admit I think it's pretty funny. 391 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:56,359 Speaker 1: There was a video featuring Steve Cardinal who was doing 392 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 1: a parody of Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball on the The 393 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:06,399 Speaker 1: anonymous and Random chat service chat Roulette, so people would 394 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,480 Speaker 1: connect with him and then suddenly a naked Steve Cardinal 395 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:13,080 Speaker 1: would swing in on a Wrecking Ball to Miley Cyrus's 396 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,760 Speaker 1: songs that got a lot of a lot of views. 397 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:19,960 Speaker 1: There was a prank and a coffee shop in which 398 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,200 Speaker 1: patrons thought they were witnessing a demonstration of telekinesis, and 399 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:27,240 Speaker 1: a terrifying kind of horror movie way just a little entertaining. 400 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:33,240 Speaker 1: One of bad lip reading videos went big. There was 401 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,400 Speaker 1: a bad lip reading video of the NFL, so another 402 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,520 Speaker 1: channel that ended up getting very popular around that time. 403 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: There was the Mozart versus Scrilics video from Epic Rap 404 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:47,000 Speaker 1: Battles of History. So Epic Rap Battles that Can continued 405 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,600 Speaker 1: to do quite well in that year, and there were 406 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: a lot of other music videos that were really popular, 407 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:57,200 Speaker 1: including Wrecking Ball. Blurred Lines was a big one, I think, 408 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:00,760 Speaker 1: but through the lens of twenty eighteen, we can all 409 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,639 Speaker 1: agree that Blurred Lines is a problematic song at best, 410 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 1: and Katie Perry's Roar was another big one in now 411 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:14,320 Speaker 1: moving into other big big changes were starting to hit YouTube, 412 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:20,320 Speaker 1: and in February the company got a new CEO, Susan 413 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:24,119 Speaker 1: Wajiski took the helm of the company. Now, previously, Wajiski 414 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:28,119 Speaker 1: was the woman who owned the garage in which Larry 415 00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:30,800 Speaker 1: Page and Sarah gey Brenn had set up the earliest 416 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:35,080 Speaker 1: Google Servers servers in Menlo Park. So Google, like a 417 00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: lot of big companies in the tech world, got its 418 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: start in a garage. In this case, it was Susan 419 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:46,320 Speaker 1: Wajiski's garage. Now, she wasn't a executive just because she 420 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,119 Speaker 1: happened to own a garage. That would be ridiculous. She 421 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: actually came to Google from the world of marketing. She 422 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:55,879 Speaker 1: had been a uh She had worked in marketing for 423 00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:00,440 Speaker 1: Intel and then in came over as the marketing manager 424 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:04,159 Speaker 1: for Google. At Google, she oversaw a project called Google 425 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,320 Speaker 1: Video Service, which was a competitor to YouTube in the 426 00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: early days. In fact, it was this service that had 427 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:13,680 Speaker 1: engineers scratching their heads back in the early two thousands saying, well, 428 00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,720 Speaker 1: why is anyone bothering with YouTube? I mean, why would 429 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:18,879 Speaker 1: they go there because they're gonna watch videos that are 430 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,280 Speaker 1: at really low resolution when they could go to Google 431 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,879 Speaker 1: Video Service and see them in much better clarity. But 432 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:31,440 Speaker 1: rather than dwell on that seemingly paradoxical situation, which honestly 433 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:34,520 Speaker 1: really wasn't that surprising. YouTube's service was taking on the 434 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:38,560 Speaker 1: burden of transcoding all the videos off the user. What 435 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:42,080 Speaker 1: Jski decided that the right thing to do was to 436 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:45,480 Speaker 1: make Google acquire YouTube to make that move, So she 437 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:47,760 Speaker 1: was an advocate in the early days, and in fact, 438 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,200 Speaker 1: that is exactly what Google did, So she was incredibly 439 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,240 Speaker 1: influential from the early days of YouTube, even when she 440 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,960 Speaker 1: wasn't working there. Specifically, what Jsky's experience and advertise it 441 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:00,320 Speaker 1: was seen as a potentially transformative asset for the future 442 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 1: of YouTube. She had also presided over the company during 443 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,480 Speaker 1: a period in which more women were joining the ranks 444 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,879 Speaker 1: of the company. She even wrote a piece for The Hive, 445 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,440 Speaker 1: which is a publication under Vanity Fair, and in that 446 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: she detailed how YouTube had gone from a company that 447 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,760 Speaker 1: had women making up of its workforce to one that 448 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:22,480 Speaker 1: then boasted of its workforce with an intent to do 449 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 1: even better in the future. Now, her tenure has not 450 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:28,760 Speaker 1: been free from scandal, as we'll see, but she has 451 00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:32,240 Speaker 1: also been an outspoken voice for women in technology, in 452 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:34,920 Speaker 1: a movement that has been gaining momentum over the last 453 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,439 Speaker 1: couple of years. We've seen that in numerous realms, but 454 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:42,520 Speaker 1: YouTube is one of those that we've seen it prominently displayed. 455 00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:47,880 Speaker 1: Some of the top videos from included the Mutant Giant 456 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:51,760 Speaker 1: Spider Dog, which was a friendly dog wearing a spider 457 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:54,479 Speaker 1: costume used to prank people in various public locations. They 458 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:58,679 Speaker 1: would encounter what appeared to be enormous webs with weird 459 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:03,080 Speaker 1: fossilized stuff hanging in in lots of webbing, and then 460 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:07,840 Speaker 1: this friendly little dog wearing a terrifying tarantula costume would 461 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,639 Speaker 1: come running down whatever the street the sidewalk and scare 462 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:15,640 Speaker 1: the pants off of people. Uh. I mostly felt sad 463 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: for the dog who just wanted to make friends. There 464 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,720 Speaker 1: was a short film from a filmmaker named Tatia Paliva 465 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,879 Speaker 1: who created a movie called First Kiss. It was a 466 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,120 Speaker 1: short film of like three and a half minutes long 467 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:32,960 Speaker 1: which showed twenty strangers meeting and then kissing for the 468 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,399 Speaker 1: first time, and it was both awkward and sweet and surprising. 469 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:39,919 Speaker 1: I guess both is the wrong word to use because 470 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,399 Speaker 1: that was more than two things. But an interesting video. 471 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,880 Speaker 1: Epic Rap Battles again got a video within that top ten, 472 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,480 Speaker 1: and this one was a rap battle between Goku and Superman, 473 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,920 Speaker 1: which again shows me that I'm very much disconnected from 474 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,440 Speaker 1: the pop culture of today, as I had to look 475 00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:03,080 Speaker 1: up who Go Coup was. Please don't judge me, to 476 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: be fair. I love epic rap battles of history, and 477 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 1: I know what a lot of them are, just not 478 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:10,439 Speaker 1: didn't know that one. Music videos that were big that 479 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:14,400 Speaker 1: year included Shaken Off by Taylor Swift, All About That 480 00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,640 Speaker 1: Base by Megan Trainer, dark Horse by Katy Perry, and 481 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:22,800 Speaker 1: Bailondo by Andricue Iglesias. So music videos tend to get 482 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:26,359 Speaker 1: broken out in a different category from most watched videos. 483 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: YouTube does a retrospect every year where they talk about 484 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,440 Speaker 1: the videos that got the most traffic throughout the year, 485 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:37,879 Speaker 1: but they differentiate music videos from everything else in We 486 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: saw in February that year, YouTube launch a new mobile 487 00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:46,280 Speaker 1: app called YouTube Kids, and boy, howdy has that gone 488 00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:49,960 Speaker 1: crazy now? It was meant to be a simplified YouTube 489 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: app that would serve up age appropriate material for children, 490 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: and kids tend to be crazy binge watchers of content. 491 00:28:57,600 --> 00:29:02,200 Speaker 1: They will watch video after video after video, so it 492 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: was a great thing for YouTube. It was an arguably 493 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:08,920 Speaker 1: great thing for parents. Who needed to give their kids 494 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:13,320 Speaker 1: something to entertain themselves with. UM. It also featured special 495 00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:17,800 Speaker 1: parental controls that were supposed to keep any inappropriate material 496 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,120 Speaker 1: away from kids. That being said, it has not been 497 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,200 Speaker 1: immune from controversy, particularly in I'll touch on that when 498 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:29,560 Speaker 1: we get there, but it's bonkers, y'all. In August of 499 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,600 Speaker 1: YouTube launched YouTube Gaming. This was Google's attempt to transition 500 00:29:34,680 --> 00:29:38,600 Speaker 1: gaming from that homepage where it was dominating month after month, 501 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: onto its own home so that way, the homepage would 502 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,760 Speaker 1: feature videos that were mostly unrelated to gaming, and as 503 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:50,640 Speaker 1: the game theorist postulated, this could have been a way 504 00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: to present to the average viewer videos that had a 505 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,760 Speaker 1: more mainstream appeal to them. May have been an effort 506 00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: to avoid having YouTube thought of as a gaming video platform, 507 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,600 Speaker 1: which could turn off anyone who wasn't into gaming. So 508 00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:05,360 Speaker 1: let's say you tell your buddy, hey, you know you 509 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,840 Speaker 1: should check out videos on YouTube. They go to the 510 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:11,560 Speaker 1: YouTube landing page, they see that half the videos on 511 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: that landing page are are gaming related, and they think, well, 512 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,840 Speaker 1: that I don't really have an interest in this. That 513 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,160 Speaker 1: was what YouTube's fear was. They wanted to make sure 514 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:24,400 Speaker 1: that they had as much opportunity to hook people as 515 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 1: soon as possible, to get them watching and get those 516 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:31,560 Speaker 1: AD dollars generated. Man YouTube gaming was also seen as 517 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: a way to compete with Amazon's Twitch TV service. Users 518 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,400 Speaker 1: would be able to subscribe to YouTubers for a fee 519 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,840 Speaker 1: and get special privileges and features in return, like various 520 00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,800 Speaker 1: things in chat and it's very similar to the way 521 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 1: that Twitch does things. So that was an effort to 522 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,680 Speaker 1: create a new subscription model as well, and in October, 523 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,120 Speaker 1: YouTube introduced a new service called YouTube Bread, yet another 524 00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,680 Speaker 1: subscription service, but this one was platform wide as opposed 525 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: to channel specific, so for ten dollars a month, users 526 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: get an ad free experience, and it also includes the 527 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,760 Speaker 1: option to download videos for offline viewing, which comes in 528 00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 1: kind of handy if you want to watch something on 529 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,000 Speaker 1: a flight, for example. The company also started to produce 530 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:21,320 Speaker 1: original content gathered under the apt lead titled category YouTube Originals. 531 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,360 Speaker 1: Those originals included material from celebrities and YouTubers, including the 532 00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 1: series Scare Beauty Pie would eventually be canceled in the 533 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: wake of some of pdpies more offensive behaviors. YouTube also 534 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,840 Speaker 1: acted as a movie studio and helped sponsor Rooster Teeth's 535 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,360 Speaker 1: film laser team. The company also announced a new music 536 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,480 Speaker 1: app called YouTube Music that was intended to help users 537 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,880 Speaker 1: discover new music they might like. So you could create 538 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,880 Speaker 1: a station for yourself. It would have a customized playlist 539 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:53,480 Speaker 1: of music just for you. You You can also recommend music 540 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 1: to friends using this app. Unlike Google Play Music, which 541 00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:00,120 Speaker 1: the company also has that would allow you to at 542 00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,520 Speaker 1: your own playlist, you could not create your own playlist 543 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:06,000 Speaker 1: under YouTube Music. YouTube Music would generate the playlist for 544 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 1: you based on your preferences. Later on, in sen YouTube's 545 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,840 Speaker 1: head of music stated that Google Play Music and YouTube 546 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,560 Speaker 1: Bread would merge to create a new music streaming service. 547 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: No telling if YouTube Music will be part of that. 548 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 1: This really demonstrates one of the big problems I have 549 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: with Google in general, which is that there's so many 550 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 1: different products that all seem to be offering the same 551 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:31,000 Speaker 1: sort of thing that it's very confusing. Even as someone 552 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:34,600 Speaker 1: who follows this as part of my job, it's confusing. 553 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,160 Speaker 1: So someone came up to me the other you know, 554 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,360 Speaker 1: let's say, two days ago, and said, can you tell 555 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,880 Speaker 1: me what the difference between YouTube Bread, YouTube Music, and 556 00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:48,280 Speaker 1: Google play Music is. It would be complicated because, as 557 00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,400 Speaker 1: it turned out, if you subscribe to YouTube Bread, then 558 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:56,480 Speaker 1: you would have additional features in YouTube Music as well 559 00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: as Google Play Music. So it's not something that's easy 560 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,720 Speaker 1: to explain because it's all muddled, and hopefully Google will 561 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:08,240 Speaker 1: be able to streamline. That was also when Google restructured 562 00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:12,560 Speaker 1: itself and created an umbrella company. That umbrella company called Alphabet. 563 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,520 Speaker 1: That's the one that presides over all of Google's properties, 564 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,520 Speaker 1: and some divisions within Google would spin off and become 565 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:22,400 Speaker 1: separate companies under Alphabet, but YouTube would not. It would 566 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: remain a subsidiary to Google itself. Some of the big 567 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:31,680 Speaker 1: videos of Salento watched Me by ten King was incredibly popular, 568 00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 1: and we saw a whip in Nena appear pretty much 569 00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:37,480 Speaker 1: everywhere after that. One Roman at Wood posted a video 570 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,960 Speaker 1: called Crazy Plastic Ball Prank, in which he filled his 571 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 1: home with hundreds of thousands of plastic balls as a surprise, 572 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: which was greeted with disbelief and then delight. That actually 573 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:51,120 Speaker 1: makes it the type of prank I love because no 574 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: one's unnecessarily horrified or traumatized or injured by it. And 575 00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:59,320 Speaker 1: I know I'm a softie, and thus prank videos are 576 00:33:59,320 --> 00:34:01,560 Speaker 1: probably not me, but this one I thought was good. 577 00:34:01,600 --> 00:34:05,400 Speaker 1: It was cheerful and positive overall, as opposed to making 578 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:09,520 Speaker 1: people feel badly about themselves. Mainstream media really began making 579 00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:14,120 Speaker 1: an impact in on YouTube, lots of videos from sources 580 00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:16,239 Speaker 1: like The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show We're 581 00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:18,879 Speaker 1: appearing on the list of most watched videos for that year. 582 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,960 Speaker 1: James Gordon's car pool Karaoke was beginning to take off, 583 00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:24,759 Speaker 1: and the one with Justin Bieber, who you'll remember got 584 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,280 Speaker 1: his start on YouTube, was one of the most viewed 585 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: clips of that year. And one of the original works 586 00:34:31,360 --> 00:34:33,680 Speaker 1: out there that was not part of mainstream media that 587 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:37,080 Speaker 1: got on the list of most watched videos of was 588 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:40,160 Speaker 1: the SloMo Guys. They got forty million views with their 589 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,640 Speaker 1: six foot Man and a Giant six foot water balloon video. 590 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,759 Speaker 1: The SloMo Guys in general, I love their videos. They're 591 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:50,600 Speaker 1: really entertaining, the technology they use is great, the shots 592 00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:53,759 Speaker 1: they get are great, and I highly recommend them. If 593 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:56,319 Speaker 1: you have not seen any of their videos, go check 594 00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:00,560 Speaker 1: them out, because, uh, seeing stuff in ultra SloMo is 595 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:05,000 Speaker 1: really fascinating. Sometimes, like seeing something that happens way too 596 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:07,919 Speaker 1: fast for the human eye to detect being broken down 597 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,640 Speaker 1: frame by frame when you're shooting tens of thousands of 598 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:15,640 Speaker 1: frames per second is really neat. So that brings us 599 00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: up to sixteen. So we're getting into the home stretch now. 600 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:22,719 Speaker 1: Before I jump into that, I want to take one 601 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 1: more break to thank our sponsor in YouTube joined the 602 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:38,600 Speaker 1: ranks of Google, Twitter, and Facebook in uh not great category. 603 00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,840 Speaker 1: They were targeted for misinformation during the US presidential election cycle. 604 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:48,680 Speaker 1: The Verge reported in October that back during the campaign 605 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:53,040 Speaker 1: system our cycle rather a Kremlin linked group spent about 606 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: four thousand, seven hundred dollars on advertising to affect the 607 00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:59,320 Speaker 1: outcome of the election and to spread misinformation, which is 608 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,720 Speaker 1: kind of terrified to think that's such a relatively small 609 00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:05,160 Speaker 1: investment could have a potentially huge impact. Although I have 610 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:08,319 Speaker 1: to rush into say it's impossible for us to know 611 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: how much sway that advertising actually had on people. We 612 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:16,279 Speaker 1: can't just assume that the ads move the needle, to 613 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,960 Speaker 1: be honest, we don't have that that evidence. But it 614 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:23,320 Speaker 1: has become part of a larger conversation revolving around finding 615 00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: ways to prevent foreign parties from influencing the political processes 616 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: of other nations, particularly using online sources like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, 617 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:35,520 Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Starting enabled to sixteen, YouTube changed 618 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,719 Speaker 1: this policy so that videos that were in dispute could 619 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:43,720 Speaker 1: still monetize during the dispute process, So whichever party would 620 00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,799 Speaker 1: win the dispute would ultimately be awarded the money that 621 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:50,560 Speaker 1: was generated during that monetization period. So that way, if 622 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: a creator was judged to have made lawful use of 623 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:57,120 Speaker 1: copyrighted material or not have infringed on copyright at all, 624 00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,600 Speaker 1: he or she wouldn't be denied the revenue they would 625 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:03,920 Speaker 1: have made during the arbitration process. Up to that point, 626 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,400 Speaker 1: everything was put on hold. So if you think about it, 627 00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:10,279 Speaker 1: videos tend to have a sweet spot when they are 628 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:14,320 Speaker 1: going to be discovered and viewed and shared the most frequently. 629 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,160 Speaker 1: And if during that sweet spot your video was tagged 630 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,440 Speaker 1: as being in violation of some copyright, and then you 631 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,239 Speaker 1: successfully were to defend your video, you would miss out 632 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,120 Speaker 1: on all of that traffic and thus all of that revenue. 633 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:32,520 Speaker 1: This was YouTube's attempt to counteract that. To change that policy, 634 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,800 Speaker 1: the company rolled out a new advertising policy in two sixteen, 635 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,920 Speaker 1: or rather, according to YouTube, they began to enforce an 636 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:45,800 Speaker 1: existing policy, which became known as the Advertiser Friendly Content Policy. Now, basically, 637 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:49,920 Speaker 1: here's the problem. Some advertisers were seeing their ads pop 638 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,239 Speaker 1: up against videos that were a controversial or not in 639 00:37:53,280 --> 00:37:57,000 Speaker 1: alignment with that company's values. This in itself is pretty 640 00:37:57,080 --> 00:37:59,440 Speaker 1: easy to understand. So let's say you own a company 641 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,799 Speaker 1: that makes let's say, microwave ovens, and you see that 642 00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:07,200 Speaker 1: an ad for your company pops up on an offensive video. 643 00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,279 Speaker 1: You probably wouldn't be very happy about that. You don't 644 00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:14,160 Speaker 1: want your product associated with someone who is espousing offensive 645 00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:19,040 Speaker 1: beliefs or remarks, or otherwise depicting something objectionable, whether it 646 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:22,480 Speaker 1: was a video that included hate speech or a violent 647 00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:27,240 Speaker 1: video or sexually suggestive video. Advertisers were beginning to express 648 00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 1: concerns to YouTube, and some of them were starting to 649 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,480 Speaker 1: pull their money from the service, and this would continue 650 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,960 Speaker 1: on into TV and so in response, YouTube said it 651 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:40,799 Speaker 1: would crack down on videos that contained offensive material. Now, 652 00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:44,520 Speaker 1: at a casual glance, that's not necessarily a bad thing. 653 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,520 Speaker 1: You can understand the point of view of the advertisers, 654 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,560 Speaker 1: and you don't necessarily want to reward people who are 655 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: being hateful online. If someone is making videos that is that, 656 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,319 Speaker 1: you know they're they're attacking a vulnerable group like a 657 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:02,360 Speaker 1: marginalized group and there heaping hate upon that group. You 658 00:39:02,400 --> 00:39:05,359 Speaker 1: don't want to see that kind of behavior rewarded monetarily. 659 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,399 Speaker 1: But on the other hand, someone has to define what 660 00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:13,160 Speaker 1: offensive actually means, and that's very tricky. Sometimes that means 661 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:17,040 Speaker 1: grouping in content that might be controversial but isn't in 662 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:21,120 Speaker 1: any way hateful or harmful. So that could include videos 663 00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:25,080 Speaker 1: in which people have frank discussions about sensitive topics. The 664 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:28,640 Speaker 1: videos may have real value and they might add conversation 665 00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:32,560 Speaker 1: around those subjects. But some creators were seeing their videos 666 00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:37,439 Speaker 1: demonetized because an algorithm had seemingly arbitrarily decided that their 667 00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:41,400 Speaker 1: videos were inappropriate, sometimes maybe just based upon the description 668 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,920 Speaker 1: or title of the video alone, not the content. Now, 669 00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:49,280 Speaker 1: in general, creators began seeing advertisers pulled back from YouTube. 670 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:51,839 Speaker 1: Some creators who had banged on YouTube as their source 671 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,520 Speaker 1: of revenue began to suffer as a result. A few 672 00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:58,640 Speaker 1: even called on what Ski to resign in response to this. 673 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:02,480 Speaker 1: They called it a controversy really, and the ad shakedown 674 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:07,480 Speaker 1: would continue throughout and into seen as more problematic videos 675 00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:12,439 Speaker 1: convinced advertisers to pull up stakes in to jump ahead 676 00:40:12,520 --> 00:40:14,879 Speaker 1: just a bit, YouTube announced that it would change its 677 00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: practices and require all channels applying to the Partner program 678 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:23,200 Speaker 1: to undergo a policy compliance review. In addition, channels would 679 00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:26,840 Speaker 1: have to accumulate at least ten thousand lifetime views to 680 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:31,080 Speaker 1: qualify for the Partner Program. And this particular story continues 681 00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:33,640 Speaker 1: to unfold at the time of this recording, so there's 682 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:35,759 Speaker 1: a lot more to say about it. Some of the 683 00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,840 Speaker 1: videos in sixteen that were really popular included in another 684 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:43,200 Speaker 1: prank video called Brothers Convinced Little Sister of Zombie Apocalypse, 685 00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:49,360 Speaker 1: which I feel badly about thinking is funny. In the video, 686 00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:52,400 Speaker 1: some brothers have their sister has just been to the 687 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,040 Speaker 1: dentist to have her wisdom teeth removed, and so she 688 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,000 Speaker 1: is still under the influence of some anesthetic and it's 689 00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:02,080 Speaker 1: thus a little foggy mentally, which I can completely sympathize with, 690 00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:07,960 Speaker 1: as I have infamously gone on long, meaningless rants, even 691 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,080 Speaker 1: more so than the podcasts you have listened to while 692 00:41:11,160 --> 00:41:14,600 Speaker 1: under the influence of various an aesthetics when getting oral surgery. 693 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,560 Speaker 1: So this was a pretty mean, but a meddally kind 694 00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,160 Speaker 1: of funny prank where they tried to convince her that 695 00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,279 Speaker 1: there was some sort of zombie outbreak and they were 696 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,200 Speaker 1: trying to respond to it in real time. I feel 697 00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:26,880 Speaker 1: like a bad person for liking it, So I'm going 698 00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:30,439 Speaker 1: to reflect on that for a while after this episodes over. 699 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:35,120 Speaker 1: Other big videos that had more mainstream media representation that 700 00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:39,080 Speaker 1: year would include clips from car Pool Karaoke. Adele's appearance 701 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,960 Speaker 1: topped the list as being the most watched video of 702 00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:45,200 Speaker 1: that year. A clip from John Oliver about Donald Trump 703 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,759 Speaker 1: made the top ten list. A clip from lip Sync 704 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:50,960 Speaker 1: Battle featuring Channing Tatum dressed up as Beyonce and lip 705 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,880 Speaker 1: singing to Run the World, Run the World was another 706 00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:58,279 Speaker 1: big one. A video from America's Got Talent featuring Grace Vanderwald, 707 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:01,080 Speaker 1: who plays the world's greatest instrument and by that I 708 00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:05,239 Speaker 1: mean the ukulele, also made the list. Um. We also 709 00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:09,040 Speaker 1: got another non ctistical video in pen Pineapple Apple Pen. 710 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:11,640 Speaker 1: I found out about that long after the video had 711 00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:14,359 Speaker 1: spiked in popularity. I still don't get it. If you 712 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:20,080 Speaker 1: get pen Pineapple Apple Pen, please let me know. I 713 00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:24,480 Speaker 1: just I'm old and don't get it. All right, Well, 714 00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:29,200 Speaker 1: what about last year? So you remember that YouTube kids 715 00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:33,759 Speaker 1: mobile app I talked about. This was the year when 716 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:39,160 Speaker 1: that app kind of captured mainstream media attention for going 717 00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:43,960 Speaker 1: totally crazy. So the problem was lots of weird videos 718 00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:47,839 Speaker 1: were showing up on the YouTube Kids app. Some of 719 00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:51,480 Speaker 1: them seemed just surreal and absurd and kind of disturbing 720 00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:56,080 Speaker 1: because they were so unreal. Some of them were just 721 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:59,800 Speaker 1: so random that they were really unsettling. In that case, 722 00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,600 Speaker 1: some of them were clearly made by trolls who were 723 00:43:02,640 --> 00:43:07,840 Speaker 1: apparently trying to create upsetting content on purpose. But as 724 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:10,680 Speaker 1: various people began to look into it, one thing that 725 00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,319 Speaker 1: seemed to be happening was that a lot of those 726 00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:18,240 Speaker 1: videos were being created by using algorithms to filter through 727 00:43:18,360 --> 00:43:22,600 Speaker 1: the data on YouTube Kids. You see, there were ways 728 00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:25,799 Speaker 1: of finding out which words were being searched for the 729 00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:29,200 Speaker 1: most on the app, and if you found a collection 730 00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:33,000 Speaker 1: of words that we're getting a lot of traffic, then 731 00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,720 Speaker 1: you wanted to create a video to capitalize on that traffic. 732 00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:39,279 Speaker 1: And this stuff changes pretty quickly, so you also want 733 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:43,440 Speaker 1: to streamline your video creation process. You want to automate 734 00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:46,320 Speaker 1: as much of that as possible, so that way, if 735 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:49,840 Speaker 1: there's a trend to search for certain terms like spider 736 00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:54,719 Speaker 1: Man and frozen and uh sesame street, that you're able 737 00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:59,240 Speaker 1: to create a video that is in some way capitalizing 738 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,120 Speaker 1: on all of that. Now, not only does this go 739 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:06,680 Speaker 1: into weird areas of intellectual property issues from trademark to 740 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:11,319 Speaker 1: copyright problems, it also would create these weird videos that 741 00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:14,120 Speaker 1: seem nightmarish. You would watch them and think this is 742 00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:18,359 Speaker 1: a fever dream made into a video. And there were 743 00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,520 Speaker 1: a lot of very disturbing ones, and it caused a 744 00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:25,000 Speaker 1: lot of parents to complain to YouTube. Again, a lot 745 00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:29,480 Speaker 1: of articles in about this issue about these odd and 746 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:34,640 Speaker 1: sometimes very upsetting videos for an app specifically meant for kids. 747 00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 1: YouTube's response was, this really does concern us. YouTube Kids 748 00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,160 Speaker 1: is an app that's made by parents who very much 749 00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:45,920 Speaker 1: want to create an app that will appeal to children 750 00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,799 Speaker 1: and not harm them in any way. So it's an 751 00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:53,520 Speaker 1: ongoing situation as of the recording of this podcast. To me, 752 00:44:53,600 --> 00:45:00,600 Speaker 1: it's really fascinating to see this very cynical and automated 753 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:06,279 Speaker 1: approach to creating ideal content in in terms of a search, right, 754 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,240 Speaker 1: it's not ideal content for the experience of the user, 755 00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:13,879 Speaker 1: but rather you're banking on certain things kids like repetition. 756 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:16,840 Speaker 1: Kids will watch the same videos over and over and 757 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,880 Speaker 1: over again, and it doesn't have to make sense. Kids 758 00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:22,320 Speaker 1: don't mind it if you've got a song that's super 759 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:25,880 Speaker 1: simple that kind of appeals to them. Actually, so if 760 00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:27,719 Speaker 1: you have a very simple song that's just got a 761 00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:29,520 Speaker 1: lot of repetition to it, and you've got a lot 762 00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:33,719 Speaker 1: of colorful characters that the kids identify easily, then it 763 00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:36,520 Speaker 1: doesn't matter that the video is not saying anything important 764 00:45:36,640 --> 00:45:40,360 Speaker 1: or doing anything interesting. Uh And and kids are actually 765 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,640 Speaker 1: pretty hardy as well. They can handle some weird, screwed 766 00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:49,880 Speaker 1: up stuff better than adults can at some points. But 767 00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,600 Speaker 1: still you don't necessarily want your children having unrestricted use 768 00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:58,720 Speaker 1: of that. And the parental controls on YouTube kids weren't 769 00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:02,520 Speaker 1: always able to filter are out the more bizarre elements 770 00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,600 Speaker 1: that were showing up in the app. So that's continuing 771 00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:08,920 Speaker 1: to go on as we're talking now. Something else that 772 00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:12,560 Speaker 1: happened in Seen was that Google decided to put an 773 00:46:12,680 --> 00:46:15,920 Speaker 1: end to those paid channels I mentioned earlier and switched 774 00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:19,959 Speaker 1: specifically to the subscription service, which really, to me, is 775 00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:23,719 Speaker 1: is not that different. It's kind of just semantics at 776 00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:27,040 Speaker 1: that point. But it was a shift in YouTube's approach 777 00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:31,680 Speaker 1: to trying to generate revenue in a way that wasn't 778 00:46:32,239 --> 00:46:36,520 Speaker 1: related to rentals or to add revenues. Some of the 779 00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:40,279 Speaker 1: videos that were big in ten included The Shape of 780 00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:44,880 Speaker 1: You with the Kyle Hanna Hanna Gami choreography. Uh, the 781 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:48,479 Speaker 1: Ping Pong Trick Shots three video by Dude Perfect, which 782 00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 1: is pretty much what it sounds like, this guy doing 783 00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,640 Speaker 1: some amazing trick shots using ping pong balls. It makes 784 00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,440 Speaker 1: me wonder how many takes were required to get some 785 00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:01,080 Speaker 1: of them, because they are pretty phenomenal. Ed Sharon's appearance 786 00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:04,520 Speaker 1: on Carpool Karaoke was one of the top videos of 787 00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:10,200 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime show was another one. Uh. 788 00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:12,880 Speaker 1: I thought that was an amazing halftime show. I remember 789 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:17,680 Speaker 1: watching that when it happened. Children interrupt BBC News Interview 790 00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:20,160 Speaker 1: was a top video of twenty seventeen and is possibly 791 00:47:20,200 --> 00:47:23,040 Speaker 1: one of the best videos to have ever been uploaded 792 00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:26,399 Speaker 1: to the Internet ever. Uh. There's a particular moment where 793 00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:31,160 Speaker 1: you see a child walking in a super exaggerated strut, 794 00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:33,400 Speaker 1: and I just want to walk that way all the 795 00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:37,040 Speaker 1: time always at this point, the video that got the 796 00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:39,920 Speaker 1: most views of all of ten not only got the 797 00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:43,040 Speaker 1: most views, but became the most watched video of all 798 00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:48,040 Speaker 1: times so far on YouTube, that would be desposito, which 799 00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,440 Speaker 1: it felt like it was impossible to avoid in seventeen 800 00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:55,080 Speaker 1: especially if you work out in my gym and has 801 00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:59,800 Speaker 1: received more than four billion views so far. So it 802 00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:05,880 Speaker 1: is a phenomenon. We're probably gonna see a lot more changes. 803 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:08,799 Speaker 1: I got an email just recently from YouTube saying that 804 00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:12,000 Speaker 1: my discussion tab on my personal channel will soon be 805 00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:15,439 Speaker 1: replaced by a community tab where all the comments left 806 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,920 Speaker 1: in the discussion tab will be deleted within thirty days now. 807 00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:21,560 Speaker 1: As of right now, when I last checked, my channel 808 00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:23,960 Speaker 1: still has a discussion tab, but I'm told that the 809 00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:26,839 Speaker 1: community tab will take place will take its place soon. 810 00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:30,680 Speaker 1: I think that's kind of interesting, and there's so much 811 00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:33,560 Speaker 1: more we could talk about. I mean, there's four hundred 812 00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:37,960 Speaker 1: hours of content being added to YouTube every single minute. 813 00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,239 Speaker 1: That number is just getting bigger and bigger. I'm very 814 00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:48,320 Speaker 1: curious to hear how many computers are dedicated specifically to 815 00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:52,400 Speaker 1: holding all that content. It's got to be an astronomical number. 816 00:48:52,840 --> 00:48:56,760 Speaker 1: Keep in mind that for the purposes of delivering these views, 817 00:48:57,440 --> 00:49:01,000 Speaker 1: Google has to build in redundant just the meaning every 818 00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:05,120 Speaker 1: video is probably on at least two or three different computers. 819 00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:07,920 Speaker 1: That way, if one computer housing the video goes down, 820 00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:11,080 Speaker 1: another one can still serve it up every time someone 821 00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:16,120 Speaker 1: wants to watch Lady Gaga super Bowl halftime show. It's 822 00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:22,120 Speaker 1: a truly phenomenal amount of data and bandwidth and and 823 00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:24,960 Speaker 1: just content that's going up. It's so hard to get 824 00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:29,960 Speaker 1: discovered today. It's not impossible, but it is really challenging. 825 00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:34,680 Speaker 1: But there's still the possibility that just the average person 826 00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,920 Speaker 1: can go out there with a camera, shoot a video, 827 00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:42,000 Speaker 1: upload the YouTube, and become the next YouTube superstar. It's 828 00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:43,920 Speaker 1: a it's a long shot. It's not gonna be easy. 829 00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:47,720 Speaker 1: It's it's becoming more and more like the competitive world 830 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:51,600 Speaker 1: of of established films and television. But it's still a possibility, 831 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:55,520 Speaker 1: and it's still a platform where the average person can 832 00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:58,560 Speaker 1: create a video and share it with the outside world. 833 00:49:58,600 --> 00:50:00,719 Speaker 1: Whether or not the outside world which is it is 834 00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:05,880 Speaker 1: another matter. It's a pretty phenomenal website. Uh, phenomenal doesn't 835 00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:10,320 Speaker 1: necessarily mean great, because they the people behind YouTube have 836 00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:14,120 Speaker 1: made some really questionable decisions in my mind, over the 837 00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:17,160 Speaker 1: course of its history. Some of them they've corrected over time. 838 00:50:17,480 --> 00:50:19,480 Speaker 1: Some of them they've tweaked to the point where I 839 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:22,759 Speaker 1: can see why the decision was made and still might 840 00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,160 Speaker 1: not be my ideal implementation. But then I'm not put 841 00:50:26,239 --> 00:50:29,600 Speaker 1: in charge of a multibillion dollar company, and for that 842 00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:33,000 Speaker 1: we can all breathe a sigh of relief. That wraps 843 00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:36,960 Speaker 1: up this discussion of YouTube three full episodes to talk 844 00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:41,279 Speaker 1: about the impact of this phenomenal website. Again, if you 845 00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:44,839 Speaker 1: guys have suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff. Maybe 846 00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:47,040 Speaker 1: there's a website you want me to talk about, or 847 00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:49,840 Speaker 1: a specific technology. Maybe there's a person in tech I 848 00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:55,080 Speaker 1: should do a full uh episode about, or multiple episodes about. 849 00:50:55,080 --> 00:50:57,360 Speaker 1: Maybe there's a company you want me to talk about. 850 00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,319 Speaker 1: Let me know. Send me an email the address tech 851 00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,560 Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you can 852 00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:05,000 Speaker 1: drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle 853 00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:07,920 Speaker 1: for both of those is tech stuff hs W. Remember 854 00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:10,600 Speaker 1: you can go to twitch dot tv slash tech stuff 855 00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:14,439 Speaker 1: and watch me record these episodes live. You can join 856 00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:17,040 Speaker 1: the chat room and you can harass me throughout the 857 00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:21,560 Speaker 1: entirety of the episode. And uh, don't act up because 858 00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:27,399 Speaker 1: Cat is watching me and she's great and moderating, So 859 00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:33,240 Speaker 1: behave yourselves and I will talk to you again. Released 860 00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:41,560 Speaker 1: it for more on this and thousands of other topics. 861 00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:52,960 Speaker 1: Is it how stuff works? Dot com