video Youtube

YouTube is built by one of the most engaged communities on the web, and you tell us when you want changes. Today, you heard from Google+ about upcoming changes based on user feedback. We wanted to give you an early look at what this will mean with respect to comments on YouTube, and to your overall YouTube experience.

The headline: we think you’ll like it.

Comments
Comments are super important to the relationship between creators and fans on YouTube. You love MyLifeAsEva and Kingsley. You thought that latest video from Tyler was his funniest yet. You want to tell Epic Rap Battles who their next match-up should feature. And these creators want to hear from fans like you, just as much as you want to communicate with them.

All of these conversations should be simpler and easier to have on YouTube, and we’ve been working on that.

• First off, we’ve improved the ranking system that reduces the visibility of junk comments. It’s working—the rate of dislikes on comments has dropped by more than 35 percent across YouTube.
• With today’s announcement from Google+, you’ll see more changes. The comments you make on YouTube will now appear only on YouTube, not also on Google+. And vice-versa. This starts rolling out today.
• Creators told us they liked the moderation options on their channels, like reviewing comments before they’re posted, blocking certain words, or auto-approving comments from certain fans. All this stays.

Your YouTube channel
This one’s further off. In the coming weeks, YouTube will no longer require a Google+ profile when you want to upload, comment, or create a channel. If you’re happy with everything as it is now, then just keep on keepin’ on. If you want to remove your Google+ profile, you’ll be able to do this in the coming months, but do not do it now or you’ll delete your YouTube channel (no bueno). Please visit our Help Center for further details.

We’ve heard you. Keep talking to us.

The YouTube team

Let’s say you’re enjoying Lindsey Stirling or Epic Rap Battles’ latest video and want to join in the conversation. Would you rather see comments from people you care about (including Lindsey or ERB themselves), or just whoever in the world was last to post?

We told you recently that better commenting is coming to YouTube. Starting this week, when you’re watching a video on YouTube, you’ll see comments sorted by people you care about first. If you post videos on your channel, you also have more tools to moderate welcome and unwelcome conversations. This way, YouTube comments will become conversations that matter to you.

Here’s more detail about the new YouTube comments powered by Google+:

• Comments you care about move to the top: You’ll see posts at the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles. You can still see the most recent comments by switching from “Top Comments” to “Newest First.”
• Join the conversation publicly or privately: You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone, only people in your Circles, or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations.
• Easily moderate comments: If you also post videos on your channel, you’ll have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans.

If you're like the majority of people commenting on YouTube, you’ve already connected your account to a Google+ profile or page and can start commenting now. If you haven’t connected yet, you can do it here or learn more here. Remember, you’re in control of how you're seen publicly on YouTube, whether that’s keeping your current YouTube channel name, using your own name, or creating a new one.



Nundu Janakiram, Product Manager, and Yonatan Zunger, Principal Engineer, recently watched “Mexican Standoff (ft. Key & Peele).”

Quick taste test. Let’s say you’re watching a video from Justin Timberlake. What type of video comment would be awesome to see: one from JT himself, one from people you care about who love the video...or one from just the last random person to stop by?

When it comes to the conversations happening on YouTube, recent does not necessarily mean relevant. So, comments will soon become conversations that matter to you. In the coming months, comments from people you care about will rise up where you can see them, while new tools will help video creators moderate conversations for welcome and unwelcome voices.

Starting this week, you’ll see the new YouTube comments powered by Google+ on your channel discussion tab. This update will come to comments on all videos later this year, as we bring you more ways to connect with familiar faces on YouTube. Here’s what comments will look like later this year in a sample video from SoulPancake:



Here’s more detail:

• Comments you care about move to the top: You’ll see posts at the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles.
• Join the conversation publicly or privately: You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone on YouTube and Google+, only people in your Circles or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations.
• Better ways to moderate comments: You have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. These can help you spend less time moderating, and more time sharing videos and connecting with your fans.

If you’re not yet using a Google+ profile or page on YouTube, you can sign up here or visit here to learn more.

Nundu Janakiram, Product Manager, and Yonatan Zunger, Principal Engineer, recently watched “A Capella Science - Bohemian Gravity!”