Where is you tube heading?

Well the YouTube studio blog update says they are going dark (that’s the option to use dark mode) but sadly this may be a good metaphor for the way the informational content of their offerings are heading.

Once upon a time (well a while ago now) YouTube was a great place to look up "how to" do stuff. Especially those fiddly little things about home maintenance and the things in the user manuals (does anyone other than me still read them?). A five to ten minute video that went through a process step by step was wonderful at allowing a lot to get done.

Things have changed! Viewng YouTubes now has more than likely incorporated ads which often interrupt the process (ok a good step for google to extract money from advertisers) but hopeless for our concentration (look up the dangers inherent in context switching - if you think these interuptions can be ignored). This smell of cash has unfortunately also attracted a lot of players seeking to game the situation with SEO and hacks to find and copy-cat popular video and repackage their message, but with flashy click-bait titles and less helpful information,. All to often they are unresearched and have misleading information presented in fashionable colours and well curated backgrounds. I can’t see any genuine attempts by google at fact checking. It is all about becoming a celebrity and “owning” the hashtag. Because this get more views and perhaps longer attention they become promoted in YouTube suggestions,

The true information gold is sinking to the bottom, and difficult to discover.