back to article Google tentacle slips over YouTube comments: Now YOUR MUM is at the top

Google's mission creep into more aspects of our online lives continued apace on Tuesday, after the company confirmed that it was tailoring YouTube comments to be more "relevant" to its users. What this means is that netizens accessing the video-sharing site will no longer be able to easily view the most recent comments made by …

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  1. Yet Another Commentard

    Filtering

    "YouTube's revamped conversation threads will freeze out angry and, apparently, irrelevant commentards from the debate."

    As that would seem to be all of them such filtering should be easy.

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: Filtering

      But that will remove the only entertaining part on the whole website!

      1. thomas k.
        Facepalm

        Re: Filtering

        Indeed! This would no doubt have prevented my seeing this comment on Ylvis' video "What Does the Fox Say?": "And this is why alien species don't stop here in their search for intelligent life."

        Totally awesome comment (even if totally inapplicable to this video).

    2. James Hughes 1

      Re: Filtering

      Agreed. YouTube does seem to attract commentators with the average IQ of an amoeba, although I'm not sure I'm not being insulting to amoebas.

      That and the BBC HYS - another honey pot to the hard of thinking.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Filtering

        Youtube comments may very well be the gutter-scraping bottom of the net.

        Oh wait - there's still Reddit and 4chan...

    3. rcorrect
      Happy

      Re: Filtering

      "YouTube's revamped conversation threads will freeze out angry and, apparently, irrelevant commentards from the debate."

      As that would seem to be all of them such filtering should be easy.

      Soon to be integrated into The Register forums!

      1. mhenriday
        Boffin

        Re : «Soon to be integrated into The Register forums!»

        I fear you've chosen the wrong temporal adverbial and verbal tense, rcorrect ; «already integrated ...» would far more adequately describe the current situation at the Reg. Try responding to a column by the journal's beloved «Executive Editor» with less than abject approval of his exalted point of view and see what happens to your posts to his threads !...

        Henri

  2. Ben Rose

    Google+

    Cool, integrating YouTube comments with Google+

    That's the same as turning them off, right?

  3. Amorous Cowherder

    Google+ ?

    Is that still running or available?!

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Google+ ?

      Too right! And now it's more successful than facebook, because every single youtube commenter is suddenly counted as a user.

      Thank fuck Google don't try and abuse their dominant position in web video to foist their failing social network product on people. Only shitheads like Micro$haft would try to do that!!!

      1. monkeyfish

        Re: Google+ ?

        Neither do they heavily coerce all purchasers of their phones to "upgrade" to G+ on set-up or insist on it in order to leave feedback on apps and such. Oh wait.

    2. Craigness

      Re: Google+ ?

      Still available, and bigger than twitter, based on active users. See the latest Global Web Index survey.

      People who don't use it don't realise people do use it.

  4. JDX Gold badge

    You know

    Sometimes what is best for Google is better for users too. They may be doing it for business reasons, but I like the idea of conversations in comments, and seeing if anyone I know has commented, more than what 46000 poeple who can't spell think.

    1. Khaptain Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: You know

      And which kind of poeple would that be then?

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: You know

        poeple who can't spell, like the man said :)

      2. Dan Paul

        Re: You know

        That would be the Power Over Ethernet" variety.

      3. Tom 13

        @ Khaptain

        Give him a break. Given JDX's postings over the last couple of months, I think the doctors are still adjusting his meds. After they get that right he'll be able to start Group, and maybe 6 to 12 months after that he'll be able to fully rejoin society again.

    2. Jim 59

      Re: You know

      Google tentacle slips over YouTube comments: Now YOUR MUM is at the top

      Translation:

      Google puts YouTubers in filter bubble to strengthen data mining

      Translation

      Google gouges you more brutally than before, while showing you less

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Censorship in another guise

    Yet most comments are probably avoided by anyone a developed brain of at least 10 years old.

    Cesspit R US.

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: Censorship in another guise

      "...comments will soon become conversations that matter to you."

      It is nice for those posting videos that they can moderate comments posted to "their" pages. It would be better still to give viewers direct control over what the comments that they see rather than relying on what Google feeds them. There is probably some portal that does just this, but I couldn't find it when I googled it.*

      * For the sardonically impaired, that last bit was irony.

  6. heyrick Silver badge

    " Previously, moderation was a power only granted to certain users during special events. "

    ? I've been able to moderate my comments for ages, or did this change recently? Given the level of most YouTube comments, I tend to just reach for the disable icon these days...

    1. danR2

      Yes, I've noticed that. I'm surprised only one person has commented here so far, and I wonder if the author actually uses youTube.

    2. Tom 13

      Re: I've been able to moderate my comments for ages

      Yes, but apparently many of your peers don't posses your stoic self control. I don't think I'm one of them, but YPMV.

  7. NomNomNom

    can they add a button to turn racism on and off?

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      They already have an effective racism filter. Just click that red (x) in the upper right hand of your browser window.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Would that not just equate to blocking nearly all US commenters?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ok...

    so I'll not see any comments then.....that's useful.

  9. Haku
    Unhappy

    Cynic

    Are they actually trying to help YouTube video uploaders manage comments or is this just another way of foisting Google+ onto everyone?

  10. ratfox

    Good

    Xkcd has already commented on YouTube comments.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Good

      Excellent.

  11. Magnus Ramage
    Coat

    "Just your bestie"

    Is this person twelve years old? Are Google execs / PRs all required to match the demographic of their users on particular products then?

    Or am I just too old to use YouTube? (I'll get me zimmer frame.)

  12. Irongut

    So if it uses Google+

    only 5 people worldwide will ever see comments on YouTube again!

  13. Sporkinum

    Google +

    I was curious about what Youtube was going to do to get people to sign up on Google+, so I signed in to Youtube. It was pretty aggressive with popups to try to get you to create an account. If I remember correctly, it threw 2 different popups, and I don't think you could close them normally. Signing into gmail did similar, but not quite as aggressively. After you get past them, it appears to leave you alone for a while. I normally use Youtube not logged in, as well as most google services.

    1. Craigness

      Re: Google +

      That's my experience too - it's very easy not to connect the accounts. And if you use the apps instead of the website you never get prompted. Can't say varied then flat.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pleased

    No longer can people hide behind comments on YouTube as Anonymous Cowards...

    (intentionally posting as AC)

  15. MrXavia
    Big Brother

    Oh FFS, can't I just have a life without google or some other company wanting everything to know about everything else?

    Privacy? ha what a laugh... if google, Facebook & twitter had their way your location would be published at all times, every comment would be public, and everyone would know what you had for breakfast...

    These things already make stalking so much easier, before you had to follow someone, now their location is included in so many social media posts...

    Who needs the NSA or GCHQ hacking, people put so much of their lives public without a second thought...

    1. mhenriday
      Boffin

      Agreed, but you seem to neglect, MrXavia, the not irrelevant fact that Google and Facebook, at least, quite happily cooperate with entities like the NSA and the GCHQ, while, of course, protesting loudly, when this collaboration is revealed to the public, that they really don't want to do it but are being forced to for legal reasons. One doesn't have to use Google (which I do) or Facebook (which I do not), but try using the web at all without one's data being snapped up by the state entities mentioned above (and here at home in Sweden, the FRA, which gladly shares them with the NSA and the GCHQ) ! Of course, all this data mining is done solely to keep us safe and protect us from «terrorists», so everything is just hunky-dory....

      Henri

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    first they gave me a free browser

    and I didn't mind, because it was better than others, and google were an underdog.

    Then they gave me a free mail box

    and I didn't mind, because it offered more storage than others and google were still the underdogs.

    ...

  17. Steve Graham

    Ever since I installed NoScript, the YouTube comments panel has just shown "Comments currently unavailable.", even though I've whitelisted everything.

    I've learned to struggle on and live with this deficiency in my life.

  18. M Gale

    Oh lovely

    First they insisted on Google+ to rate or comment on an Android app.

    Sorry, Android devs, but you'll never get another rating or review out of me, and that's why.

    And now they're integrating the shit into Youtube comments? Gee, I wonder what I'll be doing about that then? What I won't be doing, is having anything to do with Google+.

    Note to the chocolate factory: If I wanted a Facebook, I'd have a Facebook. I don't, so I don't.

  19. IGnatius T Foobar

    "cesspit of the internet"

    I take exception to that. Everyone everywhere agrees that the "cesspit of the internet" is Facebook.

  20. Craigness

    secret profile data

    Google doesn't feed profile data to ad men, they keep the profiles and analyse them to determine the most profitable ads to show each user. That's a pretty fundamental part of their business, which tech bloggers ought to know. Data is their secret sauce, they'd be silly to give it to rivals.

  21. bitten
    Happy

    Awesome

    So now I can see a Bieber clip and share with likeminded the joy, where others would only see the echoes of their private hell.

  22. Mike Flugennock

    When I first set up my YouTube channel...

    ...I decided to default to not allowing comments or video responses, and to disable comments and video responses on every piece I upload, for the reasons mentioned by most comments above. As an experiment once, I tried allowing comments on a video I uploaded, and quickly changed my mind as I didn't have the time or inclination to waste time scraping all the flamage, inanities, racist trollage and dating site spam which appeared almost instantly in my comment columns. I originally set up my channel as a place to make my work as a "citizen journalist" available for viewing, not as a soapbox for retarded trolls and racist loons. I know that's not very "Web 2.0" of me, but it's my friggin' space, so bite me.

    As nasty and useless as most Web comment pages can be, YouTube is pretty much rock bottom. The YouTube comment sections are like the WWW equivalent of a dank, grubby, shabby dive biker bar with bloodstains on the floor, knife nicks on the bar, and a hallway that smells like piss and stale beer leading to rest rooms with non-functioning toilets and wastebaskets full of used condoms and syringes.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: When I first set up my YouTube channel...

      I could have sworn you just described Yahoo.

  23. Vociferous

    Yahoo.co.uk is actually worse.

    Believe it or not.

    One thing: do NOT click the "make my channel private" button on Youtube. I did, because like you I have no interest in the Web 2.0 bullshit of Youtube/Google, but the effect wasn't a private channel: making your "channel private" is functionally identical to deleting your account, and it is irreversible.

  24. ecofeco Silver badge
    FAIL

    What if a different point of view IS what I think relevant.

    Seriously. What if I'm not looking for "relevant"?

    Half the fun of comments anywhere is the different viewpoints and the often serendipitous new things learned.

    How about making search more relevant instead of the signal killing noise of news you have to get past to get to any background research or history? In other words, keep news results with the news section.

    Now that would be "relevant".

  25. teebie

    Ugh

    Also, now Adam Buxton's Bug shows will be half as long.

  26. Nym

    Google+

    Which you get dragged into by Gmail.

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