Youtube have made following changes in their consumer facing products in recent past. And of course I am not considering things like shorts, ads or creator dashboards. I am talking about features that are actually made to make life better for the end customer.
- The Like and Subscribe button now glows when the Youtuber says the word like or subscribe.
- Smoother speed control that allows you to watch youtube at exactly the speed you want.
- Miniplayer for all type of videos instead of only for playlists.
Honestly, I am not sure what these features are meant for? Do they move the needle for any metric in a measurable amount? the #2 and #3 seem to give slightly better user experience if you squint your eyes but that doesn’t explain the glowing subscribe button. I would honestly pay to see PRD for that feature.
Maybe I am not thinking about this hard enough? Maybe I am missing some point? Maybe flashing colors do actually increase the number of button clicks on like and subscribe button. Maybe the motivation is actually to signal to the youtubers that youtube does care about them to prevent them from flying to a competing platform.
Or Maybe there are too many PMs and Designers and Developers at Youtube who need to show some output to justify their salaries.
I do not know.