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Changes to YouTube's metrics could reward "quality" content, but the company isn't sure what that means

Changes to YouTube's metrics could reward "quality" content, but the company isn't sure what that means

YouTube is reportedly undergoing some changes following a series of scandals over the past few years.

However, the video giant is still deciding how to work out what "quality" content is, and how it can be rewarded.

In the past two years, two new internal metrics were introduced by Google, one that tracks the total time spent on YouTube and the other called “quality watch time”, which looks for videos that do more than have a lot of watch time.

YouTube refused to clarify the aims of the new metrics but a spokesperson for the platform told Bloomberg that “there are many metrics that we use to measure success”.

YouTube's algorithm changed to “focus on satisfaction.” This concerns a number of metrics, including how many “likes" and “dislikes" a video gets, viewer surveys, and the number of shares a video amasses.

The two metrics will also influence more than YouTube recommendations, according to Bloomberg' sources. They will also help dictate how YouTube surfaces videos in search results, runs ads and pays creators who make videos for YouTube.

The company declined to comment on how these will specifically affect the rankings and recommended videos, as well as how it deals with many of the nuances related to everything.

One thing that is certain, is that creators on YouTube will and have suffered as a result of the platform meddling with metrics. Not only have YouTubers found themselves demonetised; some have also had their content pushed behind other barriers, resulting in poor views and poorer ad revenue.


Staff Writer