Friday, February 4, 2011

Youtube Keeps Getting Worse

With every new release, it seems like Youtube keeps getting worse. I liked it the best about 2 years ago. Why do companies that have a good product that is working fine insist on rearranging it and making it different? One of my favorite quotes that applies here is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". This is so true because when you try to "fix it" you end up breaking it.

So with Youtube's new format, the subscriptions are all stretched out on the home page. You used to be able to see all your new videos up at the top, but now you have to scroll down to see which ones are new and mixed in with the ones you have already watched.

Also, it seems you can't customize the home page like before. Where are the top videos of the day? You have to click on the "Browse" link to see these. You can't get them on your home page. Then for some reason, they don't even show you how many views the top videos have.

And what is with all the bugs? You know like how when new popular videos come out it says they only have like 301 views. And how some subscriptions mysteriously don't end up you your feed so you miss them.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like there is any competition for Youtube anytime soon. I hope Youtube can get better without making huge changes that people don't like. Youtube is big but so was Myspace and you saw what happened with a popular site that had a bad layout and features.

All the ads and commercials aren't helping either. Really they think people are going to click on a text add while they are watching a video? The only clicks those get are accidental clicks. Get your act together Youtube.

Update 2-9-11:
Just another big annoyance to add to the list. Youtube now requires you to link your account to a Google account. So if you don't have one you have to make one. Many people like myself have a Gmail account which you can use, but this just causes problems unless you want to use one account for everything. So basically now I can't stay logged into Youtube because then it logs me into a Google account which I don't use for email. Then I go to Gmail and I have to sign out of my Youtube account. Very annoying!

Update 10-19-12:
Youtube continues to make their site worse with more changes no one asked for. The new layout is harder to read with everything bright white.

Now they are trying to mix all this other stuff like video suggestions into our subscriptions feed. I already have enough to go through with just new videos, stop trying to get me to watch a bunch of other stuff Youtube.

The flag button doesn't even describe what it does so any new user will have to flag a video just to figure out what the button does.

It will take some time to get used to the changes. I wish Youtube would give users the option of whether or not to update the layout. I bet if they gave the option to switch to a new layout or stay with a familiar layout, most users would keep the old format every time.

Stop changing things Youtube.

Update 12-4-12
So now the comment box is only 1 line tall so of you write anything over 1 line you can't even see the previous line.  One of the biggest negatives about Youtube is all the stupid pointless comments.  It's almost like they are now encouraging these types of comments and discouraging people who are able to write more than 1 sentence.  We seriously need a better alternative because Youtube is just not going in the right direction.

Update 11-8-13
In the latest huge mistake Youtube is not pretty much requiring that everyone link their account to Google+.  If you decline, they just ask you again next time you are on.  If you even want to be able to post comments on videos, you have to sign up for the Google+ account.  There has been a big uproar about this because no one wants to do this.  It's just another one of the ongoing changes that no one asked for and no one wants.

Update 1-8-14
Recently the folks over at Youtube decided to would be a good idea to remove the channel name from the videos on the subscriptions feed.  So now when you are going through your subscription videos you can't even tell who they are by.  The only way to tell now is by a little icon on the left.  If you are lucky, you will be able to tell who the video is by from the picture, if not you will have to hover over it so it brings up the information that says who the video is actually by.  Another undesirable unwanted change from Youtube.  Are we starting to see a pattern here?

Update 6-17-14
Finally they got rid of the pop up that makes you choose which account you want to use when you log in.  Unfortunately there are more unwanted changes.  They recently made the default video size much larger than before.  It's ok to offer different options but there does not seem to be an way to change it back to the normal size.  Also the video recommendations do not work very well.  For one, they show videos for the channels you are already subscribed to. Two, there does not seem to be a way to get rid of them.  I keep clicking the option to not show them any more but the same recommendations keep coming back. 

Update 7-7-14
So now when I log in, I have 2 different accounts under the same name, one that is blank, and one that has all my subscriptions and everything. For some reason it is defaulting to the blank account and there does not seem to be any easy way to get it to default to the correct account.  I did not make any changes so this is something Youtube did to make it worse as usual. 

10 comments:

  1. I agree with you it's annoying. And sadly youtube are getting worse.
    I have been investing time in my channel getting subscribers, now with the new layout, I can't see who they are! It's ridiculous.
    In my opinion they are trying to make us the users less strong!

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  2. Update 12-7-11

    There has been much discussion about the newest overhaul on Youtube. Many don't like it. I think it is ok. They have made improvements in making it easier to find new interesting videos. I did notice that they changed some user settings without permission, so be sure to check your settings to make sure they are how you want them.

    I'm not as bothered by the changes on Youtube as I am about the changes on Gmail. Gmail was great just the way it was. Everyone liked it and no one was begging for changes, but what did they do? They made big changes. Now it is hard to read and just doesn't look as good as before.

    Attention Google, stop changing things that are already fine like they are. If you insist, do plenty of consumer tests before hand and also give users the option of not changing to the new layout.

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  3. Youtube copyright infridgement is disgusting it creates havoc for the users who use royaltyfree music in their videos giving all the power to copyright trolls who make music similar to royalty free music and shut down many of youtubes users who are using royalty free music and you cant do anything about it. They try to hide the ability to counter the copyright infringement claims and dont have a complaint sections. Just disgusting.

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  4. It's possible that Youtube is getting worse, not because its designers are morons, but because it has financial constraints that aren't obvious. I run Youtube with an ad blocker. Seriously, how are they supposed to support this enormous video bank without any revenue, and with the copyright hounds baying at their door? Something that good has to die, and become just another droll profit site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Connected IsolationJanuary 4, 2013 at 9:48 AM

      I agree they have to make money and a lot of it to support the website. But as I see it, they don't have a problem with supporting the site. It works fine in terms of streaming videos quickly. It's almost as if they have too much money and they are using it to pay developers to continuously make changes that no one asked for.

      Delete
  5. I live in Europe and it's really difficult to watch videos in YT because I have to wait until video download ... Sometimes it takes over 1 minutes for short song!!! The worse is I can't buffering video as it was before!!! it just stops!!!

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  6. we are forced to watch and pay advertisement video we don't want to watch anyway. people have pile of money the size of a mountain, still they want to triple size it.

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    Replies
    1. Connected IsolationMay 23, 2013 at 4:03 PM

      Install the AdBlock Plus plugin and you won't have to watch advertisements anymore. It's life changing.

      Delete
  7. There hasn't been much complaints since 2012 it seems. Which is weird since that was when the (big) government shut down happened.

    A lot of annoying changes have happened since 2013 but very few people are vocal while the majority of complaints shown on Google are from 2011 and 2010.

    I guess all people wanted was easy mobile access and are now happy just like the Windows 8 and 10 crap.

    People hated 8 for the Metro and totally ignored 8.1 which fixed that. Windows 10 uses a *fake* start menu with the Metro still attached yet most people are not complaining and only complain about Cortana which can be turned off.

    Windows 10 was totally rewritten from the ground up to the point most older software does not work even stuff that works on 7 unless it's by luck.

    Windows XP and 7 were the best for being backwards compatible with legacy software that is no longer supported on 64 bit and no new replacements.

    Anybody noticed since the *Bush* era there has been no major technology leaps and mostly things are just rehashed or tweaked a bit usually winding up pissing people off?

    I hope we see something like the 1980s again in our lifetime.

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  8. It's disgusting that old stuff like movies that are not being made a profit of anymore are being taken down while things that is making money often appears as full episodes screwing the developers.

    Somebody uploaded full seasons of the old Ringo Starr and George Carlin Thomas The Train episodes from seasons 1-4 and funny thing happened. A few episodes were blocked for copyright reasons yet most of the episodes were allowed to remain.

    Those episodes blocked are no different then the rest of the show what gives?

    Either way the producers are most likely dead or in retirement not caring anymore and whoever owns it likely doesn't even know they own it as it's usually big institutions that own lots of things they don't realize.


    ReplyDelete