Google Reveals the Secret behind YouTube’s Functionality

by Guna Nadar - 7/24/2020 103 Views

YouTube’s Functionality

Google finally decides to give answers to the most common questions about YouTube. So Google has created a new website for YouTube and answers to the most frequently asked questions. This website holds even the teeny tiny details on everything about this huge video platform.

The New YouTube website

Google has created a brand new website for YouTube to be a resource for those commonly asked questions. This new website covers every section of the YouTube platform.

The website holds a chest of gems, from that we will be looking into how YouTube Search and Discovery work?

How does YouTube Search work?

Imagine yourself in the middle of a forest searching for a particular kind of medicinal plant? That is how it would be if there was no YouTube algorithm.

It would be impossible to search for what you want among those 500 hours of YouTube content, uploaded every single minute if it was unsorted. But thankfully this bulk amount of videos is being sorted with the help of YouTube search ranking system. This tool differentiates each video according to the search relevancy. This is the reason that lies behind exact and most relevant results that you receive out of every single search term.

For the best search results YouTube focuses on three main elements in a video;

Relevancy
Engagement
Quality

Let us look into each element a little deeper.

1. Relevancy

To check the relevancy of a video, YouTube looks into certain factors that include the quality of,

The title of the content
The tag
The description of the video content
Check if the video content would match the search query.

2. Engagement

YouTube incorporates aggregate engagement signals from its users and decides based on certain criteria such as the watch hours of a particular video, how relevant the video is to the search query of others. From this, we can identify that YouTube gives more importance to its audience opinion.

3. Quality

The quality of the content is determined based on signals that identify which channels are expert in the demonstration, have the authority for the videos and are trustworthy to their title.

These are the top prioritised elements YouTube looks into when you upload a video. To be more relevant to your search YouTube looks into your search and watch history. By this way, every user doesn’t end up watching the same content when they search for a similar search query.

YouTube Search Result

For instance, if you watch more sports videos and you search for the term “cricket” YouTube will show search results based on what you have been watching so long and if you are someone who watches nature videos you are more likely to get the insect which has the name similar to cricket. As every person is unique, every search is unique.

But remember, the watch history and the search history can be easily erased from your Google account.

Raising Authoritative sources

When it comes to music or entertainment videos, YouTube would look into the relevance of the video to the title, has it been used anywhere, the popularity of the video after uploading.

YouTube also mentions that in other areas veracity and credibility are the key.

The video content related to news, politics, medical and scientific information will be verified whether the content is from trusted sources.

YouTube Recommendations

YouTube recommendation is the recommended content given by YouTube that could be more relevant to what you want to watch.

If you are a YouTuber and you upload videos regularly, this could get you an opportunity to be in the recommendation list. This recommendation is more likely to appear on the homepage and at the end of some videos or even below the video you are watching.

“We're constantly testing, learning and adjusting to recommend videos that are relevant to you.”- YouTube

When YouTube recommends a video it is practically based on,

What you have watched so far
What you have searched
The channel you have subscribed to
The location of your device
Time of the day you are watching
Contextual language
The video which has a better quality and more entertaining
Videos based on random surveys similar to questions like whether the video was useful or not.

YouTube Recommendations

Take control over Recommended videos on YouTube

YouTube has a goal to bring useful and enjoyable content that you would love to watch. They have also given the freedom to control the recommendation based on your interest. If you are not interested in a video you can simply click on to the “not interested” option that appears on the screen. This could fine-tune future recommendations.

“For example, buttons on the homepage and in the 'Up next' section allow you to filter and choose recommendations by specific topics. You can also click on 'not interested' to signal to YouTube that a video or channel is not what you wanted to see at that time.” – YouTube

YouTube do not recommend borderline content and harmful misinformation

YouTube has a commitment to remove content that violates its policies. But there are even contents that come closer to violating the policies but do not cross the limits, those kinds of videos are still available on the platform. YouTube does not simply recommend any videos to you. They have a very high bar set for videos to be on this prominent list.

YouTube is working on its way to reduce harmful and misleading content, misinform users, etc. in areas that are sensitive to news, medical, historical or even science.

So if you find the recommended video useful well enjoy it, if you find it not more liking then simply tap on the “not interested” option and go further. If you find misleading content you can report the content or even the channel.

Coming to an end, YouTube has totally 31 million channels and still more adding from all around the world uploading numerous videos for every second; it sure is wide and deep as an ocean. No matter how big it is, YouTube treats each and every user in a unique way, this is only possible because of the strict policies and algorithms they have set up. So this is how YouTube search and discovery works, completely based on YouTube algorithms.

Category :

Google

Tags :

YouTube

About Guna Nadar

Brief Info about Guna Nadar +

I mostly write technical aspects and not much into creative writing. For the past decade I worked along with top notch SEO & Internet Marketing professionals which naturally lured me into the world of Search Engines. When I am not writing I read from comics to philosophy.Antiques, Fishing, hunting are my passions. Currently I am working on Google Penalty protection and .... more info