Glad to see the thumbnail with the guy making a dumb face didn't perform well. I hate this trend of putting a dumb face on thumbnails, it feels like the most disgusting clickbait.
It makes sense. It's kind of a few metas behind the curve I feel. Everyone knows it, so it fades into the background. The big channels can do it fine, but they could put a blank thumbnail and be fine too.
We need an update for YT Spammer Purge, because their new tactic will start causing it to overfit or underfit depending on your settings I think. What they're doing is copying legitimate comments and not adding any suspicious content at all in the hopes you'll click on their profile based entirely on a provocative picture. If you have it set to ignore unususpicous duplicates it'll miss them, but if you have it set to clean up duplicates then dozens of legitimate comments will get caught in the crossfire. We need a mode that sorts all duplicates by time posted and then cleans up all of them *except* the original. If the original poster deletes their own comment it could cause one to slip through, but it seems like the best solution given that large scale duplicate cleanup could affect a significant portion of your comments
What I would like to see is automatic and manual options to mark a video as having ever been watched, or watched within a set time (e.g. [video] has been watched within the past 5 weeks).
Yes! Both! One color for "within the last year" and another for "watched over year ago" While we're at it, how about a way to turn autoplay off on playlists? Why would anyone want that you might ask but I do, especially for Watch Later. I want the list to stop between videos so I can think about it for moment if I want, finish writing or reading a comment, and a chance to hit the like button before moving on. My watch list gets full and I have to go in there and clear out "already watched" occasionally and a "Like and remove from playlist" button would be REALLY nice! 🙂
For me on UA-cam the tumbnail has a red bar below it if I was watched the video before ... usually works up to 2-3 years, by that point, Youtbe seems to forget.
About the arrow, i think it depends on the typical viewer: so for Mr beast it might work, but thiojoe followers are mostly somewhat tech savvy adults (I believe), so for them red arrow is Movietone.
Been happening for years i guess, would always notice when i see a video in the morning vs the next day or even later in the day. It was even for smaller tubers so i just though people manually changed em to get more attention
I've been seeing these changing thumbnails for a while, actually. Usually I notice it because youtube serves me up _both_ variants. Usually after I already skipped over a video, so it makes it feel kind of scummy. It's like they're trying to trick me into clicking on the video by changing the thumbnail and maybe I don't notice that it's the same. Whenever I see that I make a point of specifically _not_ clicking on it, because I wasn't interested in the video before. Changing the thumbnail is not going to make me interested in it now.
I've added videos to my watch later list because the thumbnail caught my eye but then ended up deleting them later without watching because the thumbnail changes and I lose interest
And this is why I used browser extensions that replaced thumbnails and for the last weeks I simply block the network requests to prevent any thumbnail from loading...can't be arsed with this youtube bs
i hate people iwth these attitude. i hate these people hating thumbnails for no reason. life isnt perfect and youre not getting what you wish. i think these people should accept life and its problems and find ways around it than blocking it. i think it could be better. see if im correct
I saw another channel did extensive a/b testing across multiple channels. The variance between good/bad was like 20% with the tool yet real world was 7%. The conclusion was - this feature is a fail. "This is the Worst UA-cam Feature We've Ever Seen: REAL Data" - Channel Makers
I suspect it is not such a good test because whether I watch a video largely depends on whether UA-cam puts it in my home feed or pushes it as a notification. I am sure I'm not alone in this, and there are other commitments here posted by other people that mention other uncontrolled variables.
I thought bigger creators had A-B testing features enabled for thumbnails and titles for years? Pretty sure The Spiffing Brit made a video on this last year.
UA-cam tells creators that "human faces in the thumbnail work well for the algorithm, shocked or surprised faces are even better" Suddenly the home page looks like a porn site.
I can see the thumbnail you have used right now says huge changes in the exact same size and font as the thumbnail you showed at 0:29 with the higher click through/watch rate 😋 When you started showing more of your examples I noticed that a lot of yours that get higher click through make the person looking at the thumbnail pose a question to themselves such as "why does no one use it?" Or "what couldn't a reformat fix?." The virus final boss one and impossible to detect are more like you telling them something versus a hook that draws them in.
Why not with 3 identical thumbnails? Does youtube check any difference between the images? In the end it does not matter, which wins, if any of them do so.
@@GameControlYT it’s not. Most users will realize that they have watched the video already within 3-5 seconds of clicking on the video, or even instantly, and at that point the chance they click off of the video is probably above 99.9%. The purpose of it is to see how many new people who have not seen the video will click on it and watch it with a different thumbnail or title. There’s a video on this topic but I don’t remember what it’s titled rn.
Interesting fact: Sometims when you add a video with multiple thumbnails in a playlist. One thumbnail is displayed as the playlist thumbnail and the second as the thumbnail for the video.
I usually don't put a lot of thought when looking at thumbnails. I read the title or sometimes just look to see who posted and how much time i have when I see it. 🙂 Everyone have a wonderful day.
@@mycelia_ow I've been using it for months now and never had an issue, if a title is unclear there's a button next to it to show the original title and thumbnail.
Hell yeah!! Been using it since a while on rvx and it is a godsend. I can skip so many videos which are supposed to be like just a pic about something but someone decided to make 10 minutes video on it.
I sincerely hope the content consumers of youtube tactically use this feature. I'll be trying to delay clicking on a video I see where the thumbnail is of the creator with the click-bait-y 'shocked' face that I'm just so sick of. And wait until a more appropriate thumbnail shows.
I actually do skip a "STOP DOING X", "DON'T Y! Z Instead!", or "Do A, NOT B!" video until the thumbnail changes no matter how much I might be interested in the topic. If they try that 3rd one with arrows and a checkmark/x, thumb up/down, or smile/frown emoji, I may just be vindictive enough to avoid it indefinitely. Unforgiveable, degenerate behavior.
I don't really appreciate when UA-cam tests things on me. I know it's part of the experiment to not tell us, but I ended up really confused when I saw videos in my Watch Later playlist that I didn't remember adding. That's why I'm glad for extensions like DeArrow, which helps with the thumbnails and sometimes even with the titles. It really made UA-cam more pleasant. I'm still going to watch most of what I'm subscribed to, so I don't need every video to scream "watch me", even though that's what the algorithm promotes. I never did, and I never will. Thanks for the video though! It's nice to get some confirmation about the things that are changing.
I recently started using DeArrow to force classic random thumbnails like old UA-cam to get away from all the advertisement-like thumbnails these days. It also uses crowd sourced titles to combat clickbait.
@@nmgames4789 haha yeah that can be a thing if you want to go through the story of how something happened but it's also good for videos that bait the conclusion until the 15 min mark with artificial built up. you can turn enabled/disabled thumbnails and titles independently if you don't want titles which is nice
I still do this, export a frame is easier then custom making up a thumbnail. Id rather spend my time on video capture and editing than thumbnail making. At most I use an image scanned from my flatbed scanner for some projects but I am already editing that for archiving anyway.
For channels I watch regularly, The thumbnail doesn't matter to me at all. If ThioJoe uploads a video, I look at the title to see if I want to watch it (Which usually I do) and I completely ignore the thumbnail. I do that for all channels I am subscribed to. I couldn't tell you if it changed, because I don't see the thumbnail in the first place. The only times it makes a difference in how I interact with videos is when I look for videos from channels I don't know yet. There the thumbnail might give me an idea of how much work they put in and what kind of style to expect and stuff like that.
I never click - just out of spite - on thumbnails with big red arrows, or the "sunbeams" or very thick white outlines, or overly surprised faces, and I do click if I see all 3 in one thumb, just to dislike/thumbdown it and then leave :)
I have been using YT since they started and I can say that 90+% of the time me clicking on a video has NOTHING to do with the thumbnail. In fact, many times, the thumbnail will make me NOT click on a video, esp those ones that show the creator all shocked or surprised. Uggg... A well thought-out title and description is more likely to get a click from me.
Well, thumbnails can either be very appealing or extremely off-putting, but there's no doubt about YT's motivation behind changing them......more views, of course!! It's also another indication of their increasing use of AI. As with you, Joe, and all other channels I'm subscribed to, I don't need a thumbnail to influence my decisions to view them. With channels that are unknown to me, it's just 50/50 because I'm more inclined to go for the title rather than the image. Either way, clickbaiting can just be pot luck for both the creator and the viewer. The main core of success is the producer and contents themselves, and neither YT nor AI are good judges of either.
This video inspired me to install dearrow. I'm already sick of clickbait and this will only make it worse. Most videos these days, 95% of the lore is in the title and thumbnail which always makes videos seem way more intense or intriguing, and then the actual video is very mediocre. Eg We survived the most insane car crash, heres what happened! = someone drove into us at 5mph, everyone was fine
Memo to creators: I am mainly a viewer and subscriber. If your title or thumbnail says NO or DON’T. I will most likely block and not watch. Hyped up titles are a turn off. Likewise ‘’creators’’ who just recycle other content literally, or copy the idea down to the last detail. Again blocked etc.
I've noticed thumbnails changing many times. Veritasium did a video on that, though from what I remember, they were changing it manually/trough the API. Does this one do the comparison like an AB test, in other words, do different viewers see different thumbnails at the same time, or do the thumbnails change periodically for all users? If it's the latter, there will be some error in the data, since I, and probably many others, just watch the videos from the creators I'm subscribed when I have the time, irrelevant from the thumbnail. And as you mentioned, the thumbnail sometimes changes while in the Watch Later playlist.
Haven't UA-camrs been doing A/B thumbnail testing on their own for ages? I sort of welcome the automation, even for experienced creators thumbnail choice may be unfortunate.
Honestly thought this was already a thing, but I must be misremembering; I was surprised you didn't mention the video Veritasium made a long time ago about changing his thumbnails and comparing the results.
Is time of upload taken into account? difference in time zones etc... whether the viewers saw multiple versions of the thumbnails etc.. I honestly think the % difference isnt that big of a margin to make much of a difference and too many other variables to take into account.
it happens often that I see a video I want to watch, save it for later and then when I go back to watch it, the thumbnail is different. That would mean that I'm contributing to a thumbnail statistic that didnt get me interested to the video. The one that did get me interested now doesnt get the credit. Such A/B tests outside of a sterile environment cannot be trusted 100% due to such variables in user habits.
It's also noteworthy to say, that when watching youtube on a tv (especially a smaller one from further away), thumnail text is often easier to read than the title of a video.
I've never seen a creator thumbnails for years, I use an extension that picks a thumbnail at random from the middle of a video, helps with cutting down on clickbait
You should really only make one change with each variant of a split test, {e.g. different background colour}otherwise you can't be certain why people preferred a certain thumbnail. This is awesome though!
ThioJoe - Slow down man! We love you. Don't die before your time. Take your time when you talk, no body is interested in a guy that talks like he's in a hurry. That's why I watch Nora O'Donnell or Lester Holt instead of the ultra Breaking News man (my wife loves) David Muir who raises my blood pressure when he come on with a blast. Be more relaxed, own your integrity as a good presenter and showman. If they want they can speed you up on the settings. Watch you often! JB from 34205usa -Be 66 in July. Lot's of love. Peace in Christ! Rest and Relax!
I spent like an hour on the fake screenshot at 0:03 please like
lmao
2nd
Sure. Done 👍🏻
From that screenshot I can see you too watch hour long videos about thing and topic.
When I saw it I specifically was wondering how much effort you had spent on it lol
Glad to see the thumbnail with the guy making a dumb face didn't perform well. I hate this trend of putting a dumb face on thumbnails, it feels like the most disgusting clickbait.
It makes sense. It's kind of a few metas behind the curve I feel. Everyone knows it, so it fades into the background. The big channels can do it fine, but they could put a blank thumbnail and be fine too.
I have an extension that just forces the autogenerated thumbnails from the middle of the video, it's nice.
What is this extension?
@@rigurat The extension name is "Clickbait Remover for UA-cam"
I use it on Firefox, looks like there's a Chromium version as well.
Yes, please do tell.
@@riguratDeArrow
@@rigurat It's probably "Clickbait Remover for UA-cam". There's also "DeArrow" which follows a crowdsourcing approach.
We need an update for YT Spammer Purge, because their new tactic will start causing it to overfit or underfit depending on your settings I think. What they're doing is copying legitimate comments and not adding any suspicious content at all in the hopes you'll click on their profile based entirely on a provocative picture. If you have it set to ignore unususpicous duplicates it'll miss them, but if you have it set to clean up duplicates then dozens of legitimate comments will get caught in the crossfire. We need a mode that sorts all duplicates by time posted and then cleans up all of them *except* the original. If the original poster deletes their own comment it could cause one to slip through, but it seems like the best solution given that large scale duplicate cleanup could affect a significant portion of your comments
I've been seeing this for a while. I believe before UA-cam added this as a feature, there were already third party applications doing this.
What I would like to see is automatic and manual options to mark a video as having ever been watched, or watched within a set time (e.g. [video] has been watched within the past 5 weeks).
Yes! Both! One color for "within the last year" and another for "watched over year ago"
While we're at it, how about a way to turn autoplay off on playlists? Why would anyone want that you might ask but I do, especially for Watch Later. I want the list to stop between videos so I can think about it for moment if I want, finish writing or reading a comment, and a chance to hit the like button before moving on.
My watch list gets full and I have to go in there and clear out "already watched" occasionally and a "Like and remove from playlist" button would be REALLY nice! 🙂
For me on UA-cam the tumbnail has a red bar below it if I was watched the video before ... usually works up to 2-3 years, by that point, Youtbe seems to forget.
@@KatyaAbc575 Huh, I don't see such bars. Do you have Premium?
About the arrow, i think it depends on the typical viewer: so for Mr beast it might work, but thiojoe followers are mostly somewhat tech savvy adults (I believe), so for them red arrow is Movietone.
Is that why people change their thumbnails about the same fay the video is uploaded?.
Been watching the Brew channel do this for ages, not sure if they were doing it manually or it was the automated test.
Been happening for years i guess, would always notice when i see a video in the morning vs the next day or even later in the day. It was even for smaller tubers so i just though people manually changed em to get more attention
That's pretty neat. At least know I know why some thumbnails changed over these days.
Huh, that might explain why I frequently see thumbnails changing.
I've been seeing these changing thumbnails for a while, actually. Usually I notice it because youtube serves me up _both_ variants. Usually after I already skipped over a video, so it makes it feel kind of scummy. It's like they're trying to trick me into clicking on the video by changing the thumbnail and maybe I don't notice that it's the same. Whenever I see that I make a point of specifically _not_ clicking on it, because I wasn't interested in the video before. Changing the thumbnail is not going to make me interested in it now.
Yo, it's actually pretty useful. I mean, when I make a thumbnail I got a couple good ideas, and as anyone I must choice one.
I've seen this already - thumbnails keep changing for some inexplicable reason. It's been happening, at least for me, for a while now.
This will be a game-changer, especially for small channels like mine. We struggle a lot at picking which thumbnail can make it up 💪🏾
I've added videos to my watch later list because the thumbnail caught my eye but then ended up deleting them later without watching because the thumbnail changes and I lose interest
@xp8969 Ooh, actually this shows how thumbnails are powerful in catching our actions.
They actually rolled this out pretty quickly after announcing it, so credit where it's due
And this is why I used browser extensions that replaced thumbnails and for the last weeks I simply block the network requests to prevent any thumbnail from loading...can't be arsed with this youtube bs
i hate people iwth these attitude. i hate these people hating thumbnails for no reason. life isnt perfect and youre not getting what you wish. i think these people should accept life and its problems and find ways around it than blocking it. i think it could be better. see if im correct
Austin Evans is going to LOOOVE this! He's so obsessed with "Is ____ a scam?" and will be making 3 thumbnails saying the same thing.
Which is worse for the algorithm: People not clicking on the video at all VS. People clicking on the video and closes it after 5 seconds.
With “clicking on the video”, there’s a higher chance of seeing an ad.
revolutionary! A/B testing!
I have been seeing different thumbnails on videos for quite awhile.
You should make a video about how viewers can correct subtitles on videos with auto generated subtitles.
Is watch time based on the timeline of the video vs literal time? For example, I watch some videos on 1.5x because some people just talk too slow.
I saw another channel did extensive a/b testing across multiple channels. The variance between good/bad was like 20% with the tool yet real world was 7%. The conclusion was - this feature is a fail. "This is the Worst UA-cam Feature We've Ever Seen: REAL Data" - Channel Makers
I suspect it is not such a good test because whether I watch a video largely depends on whether UA-cam puts it in my home feed or pushes it as a notification. I am sure I'm not alone in this, and there are other commitments here posted by other people that mention other uncontrolled variables.
I saw that feature over the weekend and I've been excited for it for a while. Already have 3 videos to test this with. 👏🏿.
Thank you Joe.
Explains why I've been seeing this for a while.
creators have been doing this for years. I think there is just a new tool to make it easier
@@igorlima8666 No, not a new tool increasing it's usage. At 0:38 he says that it was in testing before but it's been now rolled out to everyone.
Derek / Veratasium did a video on this stuff a couple years ago
I thought bigger creators had A-B testing features enabled for thumbnails and titles for years? Pretty sure The Spiffing Brit made a video on this last year.
Ever since I started using this feature, I've noticed a huge difference in views lol. Maybe just coincidence?
so they saw what LTT and pbs was doing and made it a feature?
Thanks!
I'll just use Dearrow.
I just watched whatever you uploaded xd
how about a list of words shadow banned in youtube....
GRRR DAMN
All thumbnails, from anyone’s videos, are grey on my iPhone 15
Cgp Grey have been abusing this bad boy for couple of months now
Six comments no views lol youtube bots be cooking
UA-cam tells creators that "human faces in the thumbnail work well for the algorithm, shocked or surprised faces are even better"
Suddenly the home page looks like a porn site.
I can see the thumbnail you have used right now says huge changes in the exact same size and font as the thumbnail you showed at 0:29 with the higher click through/watch rate 😋
When you started showing more of your examples I noticed that a lot of yours that get higher click through make the person looking at the thumbnail pose a question to themselves such as "why does no one use it?" Or "what couldn't a reformat fix?." The virus final boss one and impossible to detect are more like you telling them something versus a hook that draws them in.
But those who get weird thumbnail and roast it in comments, those will ages poorly.
3 likes and 0 views, UA-cam is drunk as usual
bHuuuuuuuuuuu youtube
First comment after 5 minutes. 🤣In all seriousness love the channel.
I would test with three nearly identical thumbnails to see if it really would be 33% for each.
Why not with 3 identical thumbnails? Does youtube check any difference between the images? In the end it does not matter, which wins, if any of them do so.
@@RelakS__ like maybe file name and other things or maybe even resolution or format
the example is literally in the video, maybe actually watch it?
@@xeon2k8 understand the comment first.
This has been happening all the time in the last 2 years
Yep, now it's just automated and easier to report on, which is nice
@@NigelMelanisticSmith it annoys me makes me think its a new video
@@ConnorRoss thats the point to artificially inflate number
@@GameControlYT it’s not. Most users will realize that they have watched the video already within 3-5 seconds of clicking on the video, or even instantly, and at that point the chance they click off of the video is probably above 99.9%. The purpose of it is to see how many new people who have not seen the video will click on it and watch it with a different thumbnail or title. There’s a video on this topic but I don’t remember what it’s titled rn.
@@ConnorRossSame
Interesting fact: Sometims when you add a video with multiple thumbnails in a playlist. One thumbnail is displayed as the playlist thumbnail and the second as the thumbnail for the video.
i hate it when that happens "sometims"
I usually don't put a lot of thought when looking at thumbnails. I read the title or sometimes just look to see who posted and how much time i have when I see it. 🙂
Everyone have a wonderful day.
Most UA-camrs have their style so i could guess who it is before reading
Really annoying feature honestly, now people can really optimize their nonsense clickbait. Thankfully, de-arrow exists.
Dropshippers and free robux scammers gonna like this
What is 'de-arrow'? I'm up for anything that will reduce clickbait thumbnails.
@@ziff_1 don't use it, it can remove relevant information sometimes. some videos even use the thumbnails as half the title.
LinusTechTips does this, they mentioned doing this to 'see' if viewers 'really do' hate what they claim.
@@mycelia_ow I've been using it for months now and never had an issue, if a title is unclear there's a button next to it to show the original title and thumbnail.
DeArrow is a must nowadays, video titles and thumbnails cant be trusted anymore.
Hell yeah!!
Been using it since a while on rvx and it is a godsend. I can skip so many videos which are supposed to be like just a pic about something but someone decided to make 10 minutes video on it.
I sincerely hope the content consumers of youtube tactically use this feature. I'll be trying to delay clicking on a video I see where the thumbnail is of the creator with the click-bait-y 'shocked' face that I'm just so sick of. And wait until a more appropriate thumbnail shows.
I actually do skip a "STOP DOING X", "DON'T Y! Z Instead!", or "Do A, NOT B!" video until the thumbnail changes no matter how much I might be interested in the topic. If they try that 3rd one with arrows and a checkmark/x, thumb up/down, or smile/frown emoji, I may just be vindictive enough to avoid it indefinitely. Unforgiveable, degenerate behavior.
Wait till people hear that they are constantly in some a/b test experiments in almost every single application or bigger website they use
I don't really appreciate when UA-cam tests things on me. I know it's part of the experiment to not tell us, but I ended up really confused when I saw videos in my Watch Later playlist that I didn't remember adding.
That's why I'm glad for extensions like DeArrow, which helps with the thumbnails and sometimes even with the titles. It really made UA-cam more pleasant.
I'm still going to watch most of what I'm subscribed to, so I don't need every video to scream "watch me", even though that's what the algorithm promotes. I never did, and I never will.
Thanks for the video though! It's nice to get some confirmation about the things that are changing.
I recently started using DeArrow to force classic random thumbnails like old UA-cam to get away from all the advertisement-like thumbnails these days. It also uses crowd sourced titles to combat clickbait.
I used DeArrow for a bit, but it just ended up spoiling entire videos sometimes. Really annoying :/
@@nmgames4789 haha yeah that can be a thing if you want to go through the story of how something happened but it's also good for videos that bait the conclusion until the 15 min mark with artificial built up. you can turn enabled/disabled thumbnails and titles independently if you don't want titles which is nice
I miss early UA-cam when the thumbnail was just a frame from the video
Did they at least get to choose the frame?
I still do this, export a frame is easier then custom making up a thumbnail. Id rather spend my time on video capture and editing than thumbnail making.
At most I use an image scanned from my flatbed scanner for some projects but I am already editing that for archiving anyway.
Today? I heard other creators talk about this feature over a month ago already
For channels I watch regularly, The thumbnail doesn't matter to me at all. If ThioJoe uploads a video, I look at the title to see if I want to watch it (Which usually I do) and I completely ignore the thumbnail. I do that for all channels I am subscribed to. I couldn't tell you if it changed, because I don't see the thumbnail in the first place.
The only times it makes a difference in how I interact with videos is when I look for videos from channels I don't know yet. There the thumbnail might give me an idea of how much work they put in and what kind of style to expect and stuff like that.
They should let viewers vote and also choose "I hate them all"
Hate is engagement, that is how the industry works now.
Luckily i have a browser extension that changed the thumbnail to a random frame of the video
I use clickbait remover for UA-cam extension because I hate modern thumbnails
I never click - just out of spite - on thumbnails with big red arrows, or the "sunbeams" or very thick white outlines, or overly surprised faces, and I do click if I see all 3 in one thumb, just to dislike/thumbdown it and then leave :)
So that's why Good Mythical Morning will have video thumbnails change several times
I'm using browser addons to replace clickbait titles and thumbnails, so i get to see neither of the uploaded images, but UA-cam will still count it.
what addon do you use?
@@Zaro2008 DeArrow
@@bjornroesbeke thanks
I have been using YT since they started and I can say that 90+% of the time me clicking on a video has NOTHING to do with the thumbnail. In fact, many times, the thumbnail will make me NOT click on a video, esp those ones that show the creator all shocked or surprised. Uggg... A well thought-out title and description is more likely to get a click from me.
But according to UA-cam this is not and the could even block the channel as being click baiting.
Yeah click baity titles and thumbnails completey push me away. It sucks seeing channels in respect start doing them
Have you seen Dearrow? It changes out thumbnails with still frames, and i think you can even have the titles be changed to less clickbaity versions
Suuuuure
Well, thumbnails can either be very appealing or extremely off-putting, but there's no doubt about YT's motivation behind changing them......more views, of course!! It's also another indication of their increasing use of AI.
As with you, Joe, and all other channels I'm subscribed to, I don't need a thumbnail to influence my decisions to view them. With channels that are unknown to me, it's just 50/50 because I'm more inclined to go for the title rather than the image. Either way, clickbaiting can just be pot luck for both the creator and the viewer.
The main core of success is the producer and contents themselves, and neither YT nor AI are good judges of either.
This video inspired me to install dearrow. I'm already sick of clickbait and this will only make it worse.
Most videos these days, 95% of the lore is in the title and thumbnail which always makes videos seem way more intense or intriguing, and then the actual video is very mediocre.
Eg We survived the most insane car crash, heres what happened! = someone drove into us at 5mph, everyone was fine
Memo to creators: I am mainly a viewer and subscriber. If your title or thumbnail says NO or DON’T. I will most likely block and not watch. Hyped up titles are a turn off. Likewise ‘’creators’’ who just recycle other content literally, or copy the idea down to the last detail. Again blocked etc.
I don't care what sort of toenail it puts up, as long as it tells the truth
I've noticed thumbnails changing many times. Veritasium did a video on that, though from what I remember, they were changing it manually/trough the API. Does this one do the comparison like an AB test, in other words, do different viewers see different thumbnails at the same time, or do the thumbnails change periodically for all users? If it's the latter, there will be some error in the data, since I, and probably many others, just watch the videos from the creators I'm subscribed when I have the time, irrelevant from the thumbnail. And as you mentioned, the thumbnail sometimes changes while in the Watch Later playlist.
I actually thought I was losing my mind because of there being unfamiliar thumbnails for videos I already viewed or put into my Watch Later list
Haven't UA-camrs been doing A/B thumbnail testing on their own for ages? I sort of welcome the automation, even for experienced creators thumbnail choice may be unfortunate.
Honestly thought this was already a thing, but I must be misremembering; I was surprised you didn't mention the video Veritasium made a long time ago about changing his thumbnails and comparing the results.
Is time of upload taken into account? difference in time zones etc... whether the viewers saw multiple versions of the thumbnails etc.. I honestly think the % difference isnt that big of a margin to make much of a difference and too many other variables to take into account.
Ah.. I thought creators were just changing the thumbnail to get more clicks :) thanks for the explanation.
How a thumbnail affect the length of watching? A thumbnail is mean to give a preview of what the video is about.
it happens often that I see a video I want to watch, save it for later and then when I go back to watch it, the thumbnail is different. That would mean that I'm contributing to a thumbnail statistic that didnt get me interested to the video. The one that did get me interested now doesnt get the credit. Such A/B tests outside of a sterile environment cannot be trusted 100% due to such variables in user habits.
I've had the feature for a while on one UA-cam channel I manage. Haven't used it yet though. I can see how it would be useful though.
I know johny harris videos change his thumbnails every day for a week after he uploads the video.
0:02 A Person On UA-cam jumpscare
You do create some great thumbnail though. May i ask what program you use for those?
Oh, I thought it was the end of arrows and people looking really surprised. ;)
This has been happening since the past year, and I'm pretty sure you already made a video/post on this, or maybe it was someone else.
I don't go by thumbnails as much as i do the titles of the video. I won't be using that feature what so ever.
It's also noteworthy to say, that when watching youtube on a tv (especially a smaller one from further away), thumnail text is often easier to read than the title of a video.
I wish I could set different thumbnails for different languages
Did you try a control test with the same image? I seen another video suggesting that the results can vary even using the same image.
I've had this for over 2 years
In your tests they are all almost the same, you need to use very different thumbnails to see a difference.
Came here before the sex bots.
guess we're a/b testing video thumbnails now
I hate this whole algorithm view min-maxing shit. Internet was a mistake.
The only problem with the internet, is that there are other people on it. 😉
Min-maxing is always a thing lol
I've never seen a creator thumbnails for years, I use an extension that picks a thumbnail at random from the middle of a video, helps with cutting down on clickbait
Laughs in DeArrow alternative Thumbnail API
If injected ads start working, that app won’t work anymore. I’m not saying won’t find a way, but you know.
You should really only make one change with each variant of a split test, {e.g. different background colour}otherwise you can't be certain why people preferred a certain thumbnail. This is awesome though!
i already saw thay with cgp grey videos
I thought it was DeArrow...
ThioJoe - Slow down man! We love you. Don't die before your time. Take your time when you talk, no body is interested in a guy that talks like he's in a hurry. That's why I watch Nora O'Donnell or Lester Holt instead of the ultra Breaking News man (my wife loves) David Muir who raises my blood pressure when he come on with a blast. Be more relaxed, own your integrity as a good presenter and showman. If they want they can speed you up on the settings. Watch you often! JB from 34205usa -Be 66 in July. Lot's of love. Peace in Christ! Rest and Relax!
Kind of hard to quantify, even those ones that all had equal 33% rating. Each of those 33% might have only watched because of that thumbnail.