As the World Churns

Photography & Video
As the World Churns

DIY videographers take note: a  click isn’t what it’s cracked up to be anymore–at least not according to YouTube.

According to an announcement made today, YouTube will now rank videos on based “user engagement” instead of mere clicks. So it’s not enough to get someone to click on your video of origami tutorials, you’ve got to get them to actually watch if you want your work rise through the ranks of search results. YouTube’s analytics will now include a “time watched” feature.

So says the mighty YouTube:

We’ve started adjusting the ranking of videos in YouTube search to reward engaging videos that keep viewers watching.  This is a continuation of ongoing efforts to focus our video discovery features on watch time.

YouTube’s move doesn’t come as a surprise, says TechCrunch:

When it updated its suggested videos algorithm, YouTube noted that it did so to “better surface the videos that viewers actually watch, over those that they click on and then abandon.”

What do you think? Is this a good thing?

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Stett Holbrook is editor of the Bohemian, an alternative weekly in Santa Rosa, California. He is a former senior editor at Maker Media.

He is also the co-creator of Food Forward, a documentary TV series for PBS about the innovators and pioneers changing our food system.

View more articles by Stett Holbrook
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