Have you ever wondered how YouTube has evolved over time? Well, when researching about how YouTube has evolved over time, it’s important to know what YouTube is, what it allows you to do, what some of the major changes related to the kinds of videos, technology, and playlists are, how YouTube works now compared to how it worked before, how YouTube makes money now compared to how it worked before, and what some problems YouTube still faces are.
What is YouTube and what does it allow you to do? Well, YouTube is a video-sharing website. People can watch, upload, and comment on videos. YouTube offers a wide variety of videos. There are videos posted from all different kinds of people. The site allows people to add keywords or tags to videos. Tags used on YouTube help people categorize, organize, and search for videos on specific topics. YouTube makes it simple for most people to present videos to the world. YouTube has all kinds of videos. For everyone who uploads a video, others have an opinion about it. People are allowed to comment on videos and share them across the Internet. On YouTube, people can rate the quality of a video. YouTube was founded in 2005 by the American Graphic Designer Chad Hurley and two computer scientists, the Taiwanese-born Steve Chen and the German-born Jawed Karim. Since YouTube first came out, it has become the #1 place for video content online, attracting over one billion users. YouTube allows people from all over the world to share videos with others. And that’s what YouTube is and what it allows you to do.
What are some major changes related to the kinds of videos, technology, and playlists? Well, there is a new “play all” button for playlists coming out which will make it easier for people who like to watch playlists on YouTube. A lot of “bug fixes” are coming out as well. Many people have reported that comments were not loading for them. But that is an issue that has been fixed. New special icons for playlists are also coming out which will show if a specific playlist is private or not. YouTube videos became available on more devices than just computers, telephones, and televisions. In December, 2011, YouTube gets a major website design. Then, later on in August, 2017, YouTube got a new logo for the first time.
How does YouTube work now compared to how it worked before? Well, during one period of time, YouTube videos only worked on computers. Now, people are able to watch videos on computers, tablets, smartphones, and more. Before, YouTube ranked it’s videos by how many times people have watched them, but now YouTube ranks videos by how much time is has been watched for. When you search for a video on YouTube, the algorithm decides which videos it will show you and in what order based on what people watch and what they don’t watch, how much time people spend to watch a video, how new a video is, how often a channel uploads a new video, the likes of the video, the dislikes of the video, the “not interested” feedback, how much time people spend on that platform, and how quickly the popularity of a video increases or doesn’t.
How does YouTube make money now compared to how it made money before? Well, believe it or not, but YouTube is actually struggling to make money. YouTube still makes money, but not a lot. In fact, YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki said that YouTube is “still in investment mode”. However, when YouTube does make money, one of the ways they do is when people pay them to play their ad before a video. YouTube was far from making money when Alphabet Inc. bought it in 2006. Google decided to buy YouTube because it had a problem with how many videos it offered.
What are some problems YouTube still faces? Well, keeping the people who watch YouTube a lot as content creators is a challenge. Buffering is another challenge YouTube faces. People can only watch videos once it has fully buffered (loaded). Older electronics and places where the internet is bad can cause slow loading. Videos that take too long to load can make people frustrated and leave the site. Copyright issues are still a problem. YouTube tries to protect copyright, but as more and more people upload videos, YouTube struggles to secure permissions fast enough. Another problem is that YouTube must also keep people watching after they click on their first video link. To make this happen, YouTube tries to predict what kinds of videos people will want to see. This is a problem because YouTube doesn’t know exactly what videos people will want to see. As much as that is a problem, another serious problem is that most people skip the ads before videos which results in YouTube videos making almost no money at all.
In conclusion, YouTube has evolved over time in a few major ways. One way is that a lot of “bug fixes” are coming out. Many people have reported that comments were not loading for them. But that is an issue that has been fixed. Another way is that YouTube has became available on more devices than just computers. Before, YouTube only worked on computers, but now it’s changed. A final way is that YouTube used to rank it’s videos by how many times people have watched them, but now YouTube ranks videos by how much time is has been watched for. And that is how YouTube has evolved over time.
Here are the sources I used:
- Beattie, Andrew. “How YouTube Makes Money Off Videos.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 12 Mar. 2019, www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/053015/how-youtube-makes-money-videos.asp.
- Cooper, Paige. “How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work? A Guide to Getting More Views.” Hootsuite Social Media Management, 3 June 2019, blog.hootsuite.com/how-the-youtube-algorithm-works/.
- “How Does YouTube Work? – How It Works.” How It Works, 5 Mar. 2019, www.howitworksdaily.com/how-does-youtube-work/.
- “How to Make Money on YouTube?” Vertical Sight, 17 Nov. 2018, verticalsight.com/how-many-views-do-you-need-to-make-money-on-youtube/.
- Zaidi, Zia. “Here Are Some Major Changes You Might See on YouTube.” Digital Information World, 10 Mar. 2019, www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/03/youtube-live-control-room-play-all-button-for-playlists.html.