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YouTube Kills Video Responses, Cites Terrible User Engagement

Starting September 12th, you’ll no longer be able to leave a video response as a comment on a YouTube video. Google is sunsetting the video response feature, and according to them, it’s be...
YouTube Kills Video Responses, Cites Terrible User Engagement
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Starting September 12th, you’ll no longer be able to leave a video response as a comment on a YouTube video.

    Google is sunsetting the video response feature, and according to them, it’s because nobody ever used it. In fact, the YouTube team says that video responses currently sport a click-through rate of just 0.0004%. To put that into real life numbers, only 4 YouTubers out of every million will click on a video response if they see it.

    YouTube says that creators should now focus on titling, hashtags, and descriptions to get their videos seen.

    “In the meantime, you can continue to encourage fans to upload videos with specific titles, hashtags or descriptions (e.g., Video Response To Taylor Swift’s Video “22”), so you can find these by searching for them. If you want to highlight them, you can use playlists and channel sections instead of displaying these videos below yours. Any video responses you or your fans have made will still be available and discoverable,” says YouTube.

    In the future, YouTube says that they will let video creators share video links in comments, which they say will add context to videos and in turn drive engagement.

    The post on the YouTube creators blog is receiving quote a few responses, and some of them are from pissed off creators.

    “You have got to be kidding me? Video responses is what made youtube. You know how many close friends I have made just by video responses alone? What are you doing youtube? The site us original posters knew has officially been killed. How about working on your mobile app and being able to comment back to a viewer. Arrrrgh, soo frustrating,” says one user.

    “A disgusting lack of vision and understanding about the community aspects of your site. Video responses are not intended for general consumption but rather are geared towards conversation that extends beyond the ridiculous character limits imposed by your comment system. The feature (when used at its best) is used by creators to connect with their audiences not for self promotion and spamming. Algorithmic number crunching should not be the factor that ends this feature,” says another.

    What do you think? Were you a fan of YouTube’s video responses?

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