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by Animats 3549 days ago
From a user perspective, the purpose of YouTube is to play out videos. Time spent in YouTube's user interface is a means for getting to the videos. But from Google's perspective, the revenue comes from time in the user interface, where the ads are.

"Reimagined" probably means "more ad slots".
4 comments
chickenfries 3549 days ago
Are you serious? The valuable ads are IN the videos. Did you even read about any of the features here?
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Animats 3549 days ago
The parent article never mentions ads. Is there a version of this article for advertisers?
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chickenfries 3549 days ago
No, that is just my knowledge from using YouTube and my experience with ad trafficking. YouTube's ad revenue comes from the videos you see when you watch YouTube videos, not from the ads around the website or in the UI of the mobile app. Do the current mobile apps even have ads in the UI? I don't think they do.

The point I'm trying to make is that YouTube Go offers a significantly different UX that seems to be about making YouTube more accessible on slower connections. Your speculation about ads in the UI is baseless, IMO.

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lucb1e 3549 days ago
> Do the current mobile apps even have ads in the UI?

I don't know if they're paid for, but the "you should watch this" and "follow that" and "omg this is so hip in your region right now" are driving me crazy.

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carsongross 3549 days ago
> Did you even read about any of the features here?

> No, that is just my knowledge from using YouTube and my experience with ad trafficking.

Never change, HackerNews comments.

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chickenfries 3549 days ago
> Did you even read about any of the features here?

This was referring to the fact that the main features that the article discussed were about previewing videos and peer to peer video sharing, which are tangible UX improvements that have nothing to do with showing the user more ads.

Can I clear anything else up for you?

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carsongross 3549 days ago
Nope. That's about it.
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arjie 3549 days ago
Stop projecting how you treat your users with how other people do.

Being able to download at different quality, being able to preview, and being able to share over Bluetooth are just straight up usability improvements for people in the targeted region (and probably elsewhere too).

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lucb1e 3549 days ago
> Stop projecting how you treat your users with how other people do.

What makes you think he'd display ads if he had an app like that after he made clear what he thinks of that concept?

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ceor4 3549 days ago
In case you didn't read the article, it's actually an interesting dive into what it takes to improve the user experience of youtube in places with poor bandwidth. It's really worth a read, and while you're correct that youtube makes it's money from ads that's actually commensurate with YouTube Go's goal of improving the user experience and bringing it before hundreds of millions of additional eyeballs.
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zzzcpan 3549 days ago
It's kind of obvious that for pretty much any ad supported service good user experience is in direct conflict with revenue. But I think this is not about that. It looks more like a PR piece combined with an attempt to reach more people.
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