YouTube has changed how it ranks videos. Starting this week, YouTube no longer ranks videos by views. Instead, it ranks them by engagement. Meaning? Meaning more importance is placed on how long people watch a video, with greater weight given to videos that are watched all the way through and make people stay on YouTube and watch other videos.
I guest this change is good, but I wonder how YouTube will rank shorter videos like music video trailers/teasers, and music videos which are only a few seconds or minutes long vs documentary about music videos.
I notice in the related video sections on some video there are more unrelated videos in the related video sidebar which I did not see before, or never notice.
The blind, and people who don't look at the screen while they watch, and just listen also might make this ranking system not work since I think a lot of people use YouTube as an online radio station/music player, and don't watch the video, so blurry, and boxy/blurry video which had a lot of long views a few years a go might suddenly pop up because a lot of people listen to them instead of watch them.
A lot of people also open a video, and forget to pause the video when they need to answer the phone, and walk away from their PC which will make a video play longer.
Plus, people which make the video can pay a lot of users a dollar or less, or ask their friends and family to watch a full video till the end, so the video show up higher in YouTube search and related videos.
People can also watch their own video from different locations and computers, or use bots, and programs to watch a video for them, so their own videos rank higher.
