YouTube Testing Non-Chronological Video Order in Subscription Feeds for Some Users

[MacRumors]

Following in the footsteps of companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, YouTube this week confirmed that it is "experimenting" with a way to organize its users Subscription Feeds that removes reverse chronological order and uses algorithms to "personalize" the video order. The news came from the @TeamYouTube Twitter account after it responded to a disgruntled user (via iGeneration).

YouTube's Subscription Feed traditionally begins with a "Today" banner, presenting users with a reverse chronological list of every video that has been posted by the YouTubers they subscribe to, going back to "Yesterday," "This Week," "This Month," etc. For those in the experiment, this order is replaced with what Team YouTube calls a "personalized order," which appears to use a viewer's watch history and other factors to recommend videos from their subscriptions that the company thinks the user will want to watch.

Just to clarify. We are currently experimenting with how to show content in the subs feed. We find that some viewers are able to more easily find the videos they want to watch when we order the subs feed in a personalized order vs always showing most recent video first. - Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) May 23, 2018

YouTube already presents "Recommended" videos on its homepage and in the sidebar of other videos, leading many YouTubers to respond negatively to the change of the last chronological list of videos that could be found on the service. It's unclear what platforms the experiment is currently taking place on, but if it launches for all users it would likely affect YouTube across mobile, desktop, TV, and more.

Using algorithms to surface content has long been popular among social media networks. Facebook's News Feed has done this for years, and Instagram followed in March 2016 stating that as it's grown its users "often don't see the posts [they] might care about the most," although the company has made slight tweaks to the algorithms since then. For its part, Twitter as a whole still shows tweets from new to old, but it does choose to surface non-chronological content with features like "In case you missed it," displaying followers' liked tweets among your own, ads, and more.

Article Link: YouTube Testing Non-Chronological Video Order in Subscription Feeds for Some Users

 

[matthew12]

YouTube, quit messing with the feed. I don't want to see people's videos out of order. If I've subscribed to them, just show me their videos. Go back to how you worked in 2010 with regards to subscribing to people and we'll be happier (and so will the creators).

 

[Gorms]

Does anybody actually like non-chronological order? It seems to me it all it does is messes with our internal expectations of timekeeping/bookmarking and the only advantage is pushing promotional posts/similar. Which to a business makes sense, but to users... well, you won't have much business if you have no users.

 

[bwillwall]

What a joke. Seems to me like YouTube needs some competition.

 

[kevinp8192]

Why do these companies hate chronological order? I've never heard of one. single. person say they miss an important post due to being in chronological order, but I've heard of plenty being missed because of algorithms.

 

[Cayden]

I absolutely hate these non-chronological order timelines. I hope they go in the direction of twitter and have an opt-out option

 

[adamjackson]

I've done it with every other social network. time to do it with YouTube. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6224202?hl=en

I watch every video on every channel I subscribe to. I don't like email and don't like push notifications from things I don't need right now so I don't subscribe to the "notification bell" that basically says if I don't click the bell, I won't see every video from a channel I subscribe to.

Now this crap?

Nope. Exporting all RSS subscriptions to OPML and importing into my RSS reader. Now I'll have an RSS feed entry for every new video from every channel I subscribe to. Like every social network before it, RSS continues to be the best way to get everything without some made-up algorithm deciding what it shows me.

 

[thebeans]

Does anybody actually like non-chronological order? It seems to me it all it does is messes with our internal expectations of timekeeping/bookmarking and the only advantage is pushing promotional posts/similar. Which to a business makes sense, but to users... well, you won't have much business if you have no users.

Non-chronological sucks on Facebook and it will suck on YouTube also. Hopefully they don’t implement this or if they do, they provide an option of chronological order.

 

[ovo6]

The homepage is a mess already don’t mess my subs now google

 

[WaxedJacket]

Over engineering at its finest.

 

[SoN1NjA]

YouTube, quit messing with the feed. I don't want to see people's videos out of order. If I've subscribed to them, just show me their videos. Go back to how you worked in 2010 with regards to subscribing to people and we'll be happier (and so will the creators).

I agree, if I've subscribed to somebody that means I want to see their videos, so why should they be pushed to the side?

Why do these companies hate chronological order? I've never heard of one. single. person say they miss an important post due to being in chronological order, but I've heard of plenty being missed because of algorithms.

It's getting ridiculous at this point, and to me it seems counter-intuitive ― it makes me want to use the app less. But I guess they like having you play games to figure out if you've seen everything!

 

[EdT]

The reason Twitter and Facebook and now Youtube are going to non sequential postings even though consumers don’t usually like it is because the people who ARE paying for these services have an economic reason for grouping like-themed material together instead of showing them chronologically.

You are the product not the customer. And since there are only a few options about services like Facebook or Twitter etc.you have no real choice. There isn’t anything you can do about your viewing/reading options beyond putting up with it or quit doing it.

 

[bwillwall]

The reason Twitter and Facebook and now Youtube are going to non sequential postings even though consumers don’t usually like it is because the people who ARE paying for these services have an economic reason for grouping like-themed material together instead of showing them chronologically.

You are the product not the customer. And since there are only a few options about services like Facebook or Twitter etc.you have no real choice. There isn’t anything you can do about your viewing/reading options beyond putting up with it or quit doing it.

It's sad but true.

 

[J___o___h___n]

I dislike Non-Chronological Feeds. Stopped using Twitter and Facebook when they changed theirs - and I’ve used Instagram far less since they changed theirs.

Who is wanting YouTube to do this change?

I’m not hearing Creaters asking for it and as a viewer it’s not something I want.

I want to log on and see what’s new.

The home feed screen is full of Non-Chronological videos - if YouTube really wants me to see a certain video it thinks I’ve missed, it can show me it there. Don’t mess with the subscription feed

 

[kildraik]

They do this to keep users always searching for new content, and their brains release dopamine when they see new content or content they’ve missed. It’s digital meth. These algorithms are dangerous.

 

[gixxerfool]

This has turned out so well for Facebook and Instagram. Let’s apply it to YouTube. A service that is a shell of its former self.

 

[J___o___h___n]

They do this to keep users always searching for new content, and their brains release dopamine when they see new content or content they’ve missed. It’s digital meth. These algorithms are dangerous.

I dislike it because of the additional searching - long term it puts me off. Rather spend more time watching the content than searching for it.

I hate seeing something days later that I could have seen if it had shown in chronological order.

 

[dannyyankou]

This is so dumb. I hope they let you turn it off.

 

[dumastudetto]

It's time for Apple to step up to the plate and kill YouTube.

 

[chfilm]

The best comment on the issue:

 

[EM2013]

“Using algorithms to surface content has long been popular among social media networks.”

Yet people don’t like it nor want it.

 

[jdiamond]

The reason Twitter and Facebook and now Youtube are going to non sequential postings even though consumers don’t usually like it is because the people who ARE paying for these services have an economic reason for grouping like-themed material together instead of showing them chronologically.

You are the product not the customer. And since there are only a few options about services like Facebook or Twitter etc.you have no real choice. There isn’t anything you can do about your viewing/reading options beyond putting up with it or quit doing it.

Thank you - you suddenly made so much of the modern world actually make sense!

 

[497902]

Is there an alternative way to subscribe to YouTube channels without a Google account using a third party service/app?
[doublepost=1527188310][/doublepost]

I've done it with every other social network. time to do it with YouTube. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6224202?hl=en

I watch every video on every channel I subscribe to. I don't like email and don't like push notifications from things I don't need right now so I don't subscribe to the "notification bell" that basically says if I don't click the bell, I won't see every video from a channel I subscribe to.

Now this crap?

Nope. Exporting all RSS subscriptions to OPML and importing into my RSS reader. Now I'll have an RSS feed entry for every new video from every channel I subscribe to. Like every social network before it, RSS continues to be the best way to get everything without some made-up algorithm deciding what it shows me.

Which RSS reader do you use?

 

[trunten]

It's time for Apple to step up to the plate and kill YouTube.

Be careful what you wish for. My iMessages don’t always appear in chronological order and they’re actively trying to do that.

 

[adamjackson]

Which RSS reader do you use?

I use a self-hosted RSS Server (Fever) which I believe is long discontinued but still works fine enough with Reeder for Mac and iOS to read the feeds.

Lots of options out there!