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YouTube's Most Popular Category

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Started 9 months ago by HotForWords
Latest reply from Chemikal

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Greatest Potential
Member

What about paying for ads on YT, How much do those go for? Plus, it would be interesting to know something about the statistics on that. Does it pay off to place an ad on YT, is it worth it, etc.

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

McDonald's has a secret sauce on their big mac hamburgers but just between you and me we both know it's thousand island dressing. Think outside the bun

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

This is becoming an increasingly popular category for me. Seems there is something to this "secret algorithm" stuff after all. Ok, so Anne Nichole Smith died at a young age, yet she always seemed to stay popular. Seems no matter if you like her, or if you don't, publicity is still publicity. I just mention her because it's like mentioning Madonna. Madonna pretty much does everything her way. Sure, she's got people helping her but she's no dummy, not even. She always manages to re-invent herself and keep her pop status even through divorce, a fall off a horse, bearing children, she pretty much does it all.

Posted 9 months ago #
pedanticKarl
Member

Marina, thank you kindly for pointing out the outside clicks versus YT views. I have been monitoring those also, but manually and just occasionally. You are correct, that the clicks to views ratio is an important factor, amongst others. I'm working on many ratios.

I've only been collecting data automatically for about one week now and lots of results are emerging as I am characterizing the dynamics of the popular board. Lots of goodies coming in the next few weeks.

For the time being, I will describe another interesting set of observations below.

Posted 9 months ago #
pedanticKarl
Member

As Marina has pointed out several times before, the Honors board that is most visible to the average user will give the greatest exposure to the videos on that board, which is now the Popular videos board. Being in the top 100 of the Popular board is important of course, and being on page #1 is ideal.

So, this begs some questions.

What if a video gets on page #1, but is there for only 30 minutes, is that of value?
What if a video gets on page #1 for two hours, but is seen by very few people due to the time of day that the video is on the board? I have hundreds of questions similar that which have uncovered interesting relationships.

In the case of the Most Viewed video board, many of Marina's videos made it to page #1 in less than 24 hours and enjoyed a full day or more of exposure. That is not the case with the Popular board. Graphs later this week will demonstrate that.

While I'm developing lots of code to gather and analyze the data, here in the interim is a partial list of users that have occupied page 1 of the Popular board.

Who has occupied the first page (position #1-20): (Feb 3 - Feb 15)
There have been 458 unique users that have occupied page 1.

Users who have been in position #1 (partial list).
CBS, SIswimsuit, JimmyKimmelLive, TheOnion, HollywoodTV, CelebTV, laurisgar
sxephil, MysteryGuitarMan, nalts
Note: I think the MysteryGuitarMan wrote the original sxephil song?

Other users who have been on page 1 (partial list).
AssociatedPress, AlJazeeraEnglish, barelypolitical, CBS, NBA, RussiaToday, whitehouse, universalmusicgroup, TEDtalksDirector, SonyPictures
asathecomic, communitychannel, Fred, machinima, panacea81, smpfilms, smosh, WHATTHEBUCKSHOW, VenetianPrincess, scriptgirl411 (Marina mentioned her earlier)

I also found more sock puppet accounts that have been spamming the Popular board.
As I mentioned earlier, the user "s9164914214" who had been on page 1, has been suspended.

Now, check this out. Look at these users. Do you think these are sock puppets?
I bet they are.

Username              Avg Position
-----------------------------------------------------
sakumakumasa451016p3   9
sakumakumasan1234p2    12
sakumakumasan2009p2    14
sakumakumasan3242       10
sakumakumasan7562pa6   15 -- Account is Suspended --
sakumakumasan7562pa7   10
-----------------------------------------------------

As you can see, I am on this like stink on rotten eggs.
I'm juggling 500,000 pieces of data and growing quickly, so bear with me. Lots more goodies to come.

Posted 9 months ago #
pedanticKarl
Member

Hello Marina,
With respect to your earlier comment about the clicks to views ratio.
Have you checked your, "Smoking pot with Michael Phelps?" video?

That video was on the Popular board and I have graphs to show later this week.
Look at the clicks of that video.
Holy Mirror!!! (That's Spiegel in DE) and even HFW site got into the clicks.

HotForWords video: "Smoking pot with Michael Phelps?"
Feb 3
Spiegel: (34,826 clicks / 199,540 views) * 100 = 17.4%
You should have been in #1 spot.
Views: 199,540
Favorited: 195 times
Comments: 1,838
Ratings: 850

scriptgirl411 video: ScriptGirl Report 02.06.09
Feb 7
(6,990 clicks / 64,704 views) * 100 = 10.8%
Views: 64,704
Favorited: 46 times
Comments: 201
Ratings: 170

Compare those two and tell me you didn't get robbed. I call foul on YT.
All of your stats scream POPULAR! I've been noticing this for awhile, but bear with me. I did those numbers manually, and working on automating a ton of stuff to validate my suspicions.

Posted 9 months ago #
HotForWords
Key Master

pedanticKarl,
When you talk about sakumakumasa451016p3 "spamming" the most popular pages. Then, that is exactly what you are looking for. How is this person "spamming" these pages? The purpose behind "Most Popular" is to prevent people from manipulating their videos so that they appear.

It appears this person uploads a LOT of videos and they are entire episodes of shows (broken into 10 minute increments, which is the max time allowed per video).

Since these are entire shows, then people probably watch then all the way through (so the attention span is probably high). So that might be playing into this as well.

Of course, the person does NOT own the content, it's complete copyright violation, but unless the copyright holder complains, then the videos will remain.

I'm starting to feel like this "Most Popular" category is not really indicative of what people want to watch.

Keep finding examples of these "Popular Page Spammers" and I can start to present an argument to YouTube that it needs to be worked on.

Posted 9 months ago #
pedanticKarl
Member

Hi Marina,
Notice that the "sakumakumasan7562pa6" user's account was suspended and I suspect the others are not far behind.

What's interesting, is that I wasn't looking for spamming. As I am characterizing the dynamics of the Popular pages, certain patterns started to emerge in terms of the same users appearing in the same position, and then appearing under similar names and with serial videos and so on. Also, being in the Japanese language doesn't help the Popular category in broad user appeal.

For example, the user, "AssociatedPress" who is hogging the Popular pages, could be called a spammer, but I can just hear YT say, well, in the interest of current events, that makes those video popular. But, none (or most) of the AP videos do not meet any of the popularity standards in relation to other videos by any measure.

Marina, yes, you are correct, the "Most Popular" category is not really indicative of what people want to watch for the following observations.
1. There are many foreign speaking videos which should be relegated to the country of origin.

2. Short non-sensical 40 second clips that make no sense and many that are in a foreign language. Many of these get on the Popular board with less than 10,000 views. Those wouldn't make it on to the Most Viewed board, and they shouldn't.

3. Commercial Media companies like AP, CBS, etc dominate the board where it could almost be called the "Popular News" board. What's the correct mix of news to other types of videos? I think it is leaning too heavily into the news area right now.

4. "Coat tail" spamming as was seen with the "Dentist kid" where a popular video is copied, and then re-uploaded by someone else or usually a sock puppet account. The original video was funny and the parody was funny, but having the same video on the board by 5 different users on the same page is senseless.

Marina, I have many examples of unfairness which I am documenting and I will let you know when I have all my ducks in a row to present to YouTube.

At this point I would describe YouTube's placement of videos
on the Popular pages as highly caparicious.

Do I get to go to grad school now? Why do I ask? Click the link and find out.

Posted 9 months ago #
pedanticKarl
Member

Hello Marina,
I did a cursory look at some numbers of ScriptGirl and a red flag went up.
I was gonna drop it till later, but thought I'd do one more check, before getting ready for work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Knowles

I'm not making any judgments nor alluding to anything at the moment until I do more data checking, but thought I'd give you a heads up at some red flags I saw. Specifically, the ScriptGirl clicks. The Avril Lavigne views thing comes to mind. Anyway, lots more checking to do. Later....

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

Last night I was trying to find HFW videos on most popular and couldn't even find them. I think now it the time for a call to action plan, as we continue to research the MP algorithm.

I'm seeing something constant here. 'Very popular' sites linking to YT. Here is some examples.

Fred:
Sites linking to this video (5)
Clicks
URL
13,249
http://dailygab.com/fred-on-icarly/626
11,260
http://bulletins.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bu...
1,395
http://justjaredjr.buzznet.com/
1,248
http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=691113
872
http://oceanup.com/

Michail Buckley:
Sites linking to this video (5)
Clicks
URL
6,389
http://dailygab.com/asians-hate-you-miley-cyrus/833
874
http://video.tagged.com/?v=q9KGd7ga8B0
465
http://video.google.ca/?hl=en&tab=wv
402
http://www.buckhollywood.com/
220
http://www.manuelanorga.com/2009/02/14/miley-cyrus-v...

Community channel:

Sites linking to this video (5)
Clicks
URL
773
http://www.53gan.com/crsp/200812/28-2000.html
556
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,605708-3,0...
520
http://dantri.com.vn/c132/s132-305460/nguoi-ngoai-ha...
370
http://www.locurablog.com/c/bromas/
323
http://www.new7ob.com/video/54.html

Hotforpotatoes: (just kidding)

1,894
http://www.hotforwords.com/2009/02/13/oreilly-factor...
37
http://www.hotforwords.com/category/lessons/
30
http://www.hotforwords.com/2009/02/12/pork-barrel/
20
http://dequalss.com/2009/02/13/muzzammil-hassan-reli...
http://g.qiu001.com/Html/?1168.html
85
http://www.hotforwords.com/category/lessons/

You see a pattern emerging? We must find ways to get other sites that have very heavy traffic to host HFW lessons. HFW website does a great job holding it's own at times.
2,152
http://www.hotforwords.com/2009/02/12/pork-barrel/
1,466
http://gg.qiu001.com/Html/?1168.html
1,419
http://tv.58888.net/Html/?1168.html
860
http://g.qiu001.com/Html/?1168.html
85
http://www.hotforwords.com/category/lessons/

So we need to find a few high traffic sites to link to HFW YT lessons. Daily gab seams to be a good place to start. I have not researched for any contact information or how vids are selected. I just subscribed to kind of explore a bit. It's mostly just hollywood gossip page. Dime a dozen.

Also I have a question. Could the oreilly-factor might be a negative impact? I believe so. That said I think it would be wrong to stop going to the show for it is good exposure that adds to the creditability to HFW. So replacing might be best. I could get M booked on a few talk shows for sure but I have to be in LA to do this.

@Marina, You have your book finished yet?

So tribe. You have any ideas to add to a action plan?

CJ

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

I'm still stumped on why TY has bullets next to these categories.

# Autos & Vehicles
# Comedy
# Education
# Entertainment
# Film & Animation
# Gaming
# Howto & Style
# • Movies
# • Music
# • News & Politics
# Nonprofits & Activism
# People & Blogs
# Pets & Animals
# Science & Technology
# Sports
# Travel & Events

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

~Hi~

I've been reading these comments with a keen interest and had a few things to mention which may relate to some of the latest comments here.

Karl says:
Now, check this out. Look at these users. Do you think these are sock puppets?
I bet they are.

Username Avg Position
-----------------------------------------------------
sakumakumasa451016p3 9
sakumakumasan1234p2 12
sakumakumasan2009p2 14
sakumakumasan3242 10
sakumakumasan7562pa6 15 -- Account is Suspended --
sakumakumasan7562pa7 10
-----------------------------------------------------

Marina asks:
pedanticKarl,
When you talk about sakumakumasa451016p3 "spamming" the most popular pages. Then, that is exactly what you are looking for. How is this person "spamming" these pages?

has anyone mentioned spam bots yet? because a "puppet sock account" is basically someone using a "pseudonym" or many pseudonyms to flame viral on the net. now, there are spam bot programs that don't require a person at the helm in order to flame in message board rooms. the trick is being able to spot these spammings and then getting on them right away and using the spam option YT has in place to get rid of the spam and flame. what you're looking for is as Karl pointed out a repeated nic such as; sakumakumasa&followed by [tail/spam/code]: such as 7562pa6, 2009p2, etc.

Hope this helps. There was more I wanted to say but I suppose that'll do for the time being.

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

I'm puring over the data and we are missing so much metrics. We need to see the time stamp of this data to see the spikes and when they occur. bla!

I'm also thinking that the student body could post how they found todays HFW lesson. Email, website, friend, google, blog, YouTube, etc. She could put it at the end of the lesson.

But I keep wanting to go a total different route. This idea has been nagging me for months and I don't think Marina is for it. I'm not happy with the current look and ease of use at HFW. HFW lessons and website needs a makeover. Yes! A Makeover. People will bitch about this but I think it's time. Also it's important that Marina communicate these changes so to soften the shock. YT likes to make changes without communicating it's intentions which I think is a very bad thing. If Marina is not comfortable about communicating or feels that she rather focus on other projects, I could make the posts on my TA page. All it does is piss people off for they don't like abrupt changes. HFW has should optimize for her site for demographics of her views and also set it up to attract new views that where just not into her current look.

Well that's just some of my thoughts on this. I want to brain storm a bit more and have a bit of a flow chart on a course of action. Then execute the plan and move forward from this. I don't think we will be able to completely figure out the MP algorithm for I think that's YT idea is to make it so we can't game it so easily. For those that are currently gaming the new MP we can watch and see what happens.

Posted 9 months ago #
HotForWords
Key Master

CaptainJack.. click on those bulleted links and you'll be able to see the direction YouTube hopes to take the whole site. Look at movies and you won't be able to find Most Viewed anywhere. It is an obvious attempt to control what appears and what doesn't as there don't appear to be any records of how popular a video is. (No most viewed list is available.)

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

@Marina

It probably wouldn't hurt to name your videos after quasi movie titles like "Citizen Candy Kane" & "There's Something About Marina" and see where that goes

Posted 9 months ago #
originalistrick
Member

Excellent point, Marina. And Captain Jack, I couldn't DISagree with you more, my friend. How would Marina's revamping the site have any effect, positive OR negative, in this situation? The stupid YT algorithm isn't going to recognize such a change, and HFW (and Marina) are as popular(in the REAL sense of the word) as ever.
Ya'll know I'm pretty dense about 'puter stuff, so enlighten me if I'm missing something here.

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

Not like I'm trying to confuse the competetion or anything it's just I have noticed these changes with YT and how songs just get stricken out of videos and other such annoyances that surely cause more detriment to YT than they do good.

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

Perhaps I can enlighten you originalistrick
there you go
yet another mystery solved...

Posted 9 months ago #
originalistrick
Member

Wow! It's all so...bright...

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

wear mirror shades ~ see, wisdom flows like a mighty river around here *

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

Thanks Marina for the bullet comment. Looks like YT wants to follow the steps of network TV. Very sad......

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

@originalistrick, Your right that website changes do not effect the algorithm. What I meant was that a new look will attract new and past visitors. For example, every year new car designs come out but the guts of the car never change. Another example, new fashions come out every year and yet they still function the same. It's all about 'LOOKS'. Nobody wants last years model car, cloths, house furniture, electronics, computers, etc. HFW site has been wearing the same outfit for over a year. I'm not saying it has not been upgraded on the inside. Marina has worked her tail off making the site function better and offering more features.
As for the videos, they could use a makeover also. Which I think would be more important. I can spot most of the top producers thumb nail from a mile away. MyDamnChannel (one of subscribed channels) catches me off guard for the thumbnail background changes with each video. I sometimes click on their stuff only to find out that I already subscribe to them.
I don't have my show posted yet to prove my point. Im now going to shot myself in the foot. So anything I said now or in the past should be taken with a grain of salt or ignored. Who should one listen to for good advice? The one who has done it. For example, which would you choose to get yacht maintenance tips from, Tiger Woods or Me? Now the flip side of that. Who is the best to goto on building a easy to use computer for home computer users, IBM or two guys working out of a garage?

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

Who is the best to goto on building a easy to use computer for home computer users, IBM or two guys working out of a garage?

I'm going with Hewlett-Packard. Throw it out there, see if it jots some connection, this is like cellular biology where electrical fields interact by sparking brain stem connects and stimulating the cerebral cortex area to expand our thoughts so we can appreciate what we have and then take it further. call it "an idea that awaits to be heard"

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

I hear you, nobody wants a gremlin car these days so someone else just repackages it to make it look like a VW rabbit which is still a VW bug that hasn't changed over the years all that much it's just been modernized and repackaged to appeal to the current market trend crowd, which is fine, but it had to become a VW classic first to get to that status so there was a true dedication of craft to begin with. Cars are built, built by design, construction, a lot of work goes into the making of a car to keep it on the road and then continuing the generation of say, a mustang classic model, to appeal to the people who fell in love with the older style car then the next line, and up to the modern. no steps are left out, these things have to be considered when you're investing time and money into a project like that.

Posted 9 months ago #
Greatest Potential
Member

Consider auto manufacture slogans too. Chevy is like a rock, Ford is built tough and GMC is built to last. There are common threads in these slogans. I guess YT has it's share of slogans too, heh.

Posted 9 months ago #
Hs4Mm
Member

Regarding Captain Jack's call for a website makeover, this site is the most well-designed and easy to use site I have ever seen.

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

Do honor awards help in anything? I just looked at "periodicvideos" and they have over 291,864 views in just 7 days. They list 77 honors in Science & Technology category. Marina mentioned that she is in the Entertainment Cat for it shows more ads.

Posted 9 months ago #
Captain Jack
Member

@greatestpotential, correct. I was looking for Apple but your answer is also correct.

@ hs4mm, In your opinion that might be true but I have had students say different. I didn't know it was and issue until it was brought up. Now I happen to agree with them.

Posted 9 months ago #
Bob
Member

@hs4mm and @Captain Jack. I don't really have an opinion about how easy Marina's site is to use compared to others. I've been knocking around here for over a year so I've grown with the site and adapted as it changed.
No two sites are the same, so you need to be adaptable when you approach a new site and accept that you will like some features and dislike others.
Anyway, it's Marina's baby, and you criticize a woman's baby at your peril.

Posted 9 months ago #
originalistrick
Member

Thanks for the response, Cap'n. I appreciate your point, but I don't think any changes our Dear Teach could make to her layout would directly reap an increase in new viewers/subscribers as it applies to the current YT situation, i.e. no changes would offset any negative impact from YT's category changes. You make a valid point, though.
I echo hs4mm's comment.

Posted 9 months ago #

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