YouTube turns into a social network: enabling a sudden revolution

Great news for YouTube users: the latest updates make it more and more similar to a social network.

YouTube is the world’s leading video sharing platform. With over 120 million daily active users, this portal has completely revolutionized the way we consume content. Compared to classical television, it allows anyone to create a video, upload it to its servers and then make it available to the entire population of the world. In theory, therefore, We can all make our voices heard and become famous thanks to YouTube.

And that’s the way this platform has been over the years It has completely revolutionized some people’s lives and created new jobs, such as a YouTuber or, more generally, a video content creator. Therefore, it is not just videos or images that are circulated on YouTube: at the heart of the process are ideas and people, all ready to share their emotions and interests with the world. Thus, Google Video decided to take a very specific path: Becoming more and more similar to a social network.

YouTube wants to increase engagement among users on its platform

In fact, YouTube already has a strong social component. In fact, in the comments section, millions of users share their opinions with others every day About the videos you just watched. Thanks to the ability to respond to other people’s comments, this feature of the platform becomes a space for exchanging ideas and discussion, and is perhaps one of the most democratic features in the world, since anyone with an Internet connection can access it.

There are those who express appreciation or criticism, those who ask for help from other users, and those who instead try to meet people with feelings or situations similar to their own. So YouTube decided to make interaction more visible on its platform, with two small but important changes: It will add a “Likes” and Views counter that updates in real time.

This idea, while not revolutionary, has the potential to make the user experience more engaging and interactive: knowing that millions of other people are watching and appreciating the same video we are watching too is definitely a way to… Increased sense of ‘community’ (On which many social networks depend for their success).

The function is currently in the testing phase: not all users can see it and it is not certain that it will remain. However, the first reactions from users could surprise the company’s top management: if, on the other hand, there were those who said that they appreciated the new idea, Many users described the live update of meters as “annoying” And a “distracting agent.” All that remains is to wait and see how Google will interpret the test data.