It looks like Google’s YouTube is planning new ways to stop the masses from disliking of videos on its platform, a move that may be planned to lower the particular video’s recommendation rank. Tom Leung, director of project management at YouTube recently revealed how the team is planning to solve the issue of ‘dislike mobs’. The information was revealed in the recent Creator Insider videos on YouTube.
‘Dislike Mobs’ are explained as large users on YouTube that hit the thumbs down button below the video to lower the recommendation ranks and even comment negatively for the creator or the video in general. It is worth adding that if the number of dislikes are more than that of likes, that video is less likely to be recommended to viewers.


YouTube testing new video recommendation format: ReportGoogle-owned video sharing platform YouTube is testing a new video recommendation format that displays blue bubbles on the screen with relevant keywords and related topic suggestions, facilitating easier browsing, media reported.

Leung says that one of the options to tackle this could be to disable the option for users to hit the thumbs up or thumbs down buttons. This can be done by creators. However, it won’t reflect if the video is getting a positive or a negative response, something that is vital for them. The second option can be to ask users why they are disliking the video. This will give them a pause before blindly hitting the thumbs down button. This will also give creators information as to why their video was disliked. The third and last option could be to remove the dislike button completely. This is the most extreme step as well.

Users on Leung’s video have suggested that YouTube shouldn’t count the like or dislike until unless the user has seen 25% of the video. “It will increase watch time if people want to vote and make people make a decision based on the actual video, not just the title or subject matter,” says one of the users.

The company is yet to take a call on this and rollout changes.

Source: gadgetsnow.com