According to statistics on Global Media Insight, YouTube has 122 million active users daily. The staggering number allows enormous growth for the platform to experiment with new avenues and recently, YouTube have been working on improving their search.
The search bar is the main function for any social media platform as it allows a user to be able to find the relevant information they are looking for. Nowadays, most people like to access information fast and effectively with only 1-2 clicks before they reach their destination. As YouTube is predominately a video platform, YouTube have noted that people would like easier ways to see what a video is about on YouTube before diving into the actual content.
Before, when searching for a video, YouTube will show you a list of videos with their thumbnail image. Now, the platform has adapted the way they present the videos, giving viewers more then just an image, but a quick snapshot or collage of the events happening in the video. This change will enable you to get more of an insight into the video before clicking on it which will let you better evaluate the video you’re about to watch.
Snippets already exists on desktop view when hovering your mouse over a video, and recently it has also been adapted to mobile view. This minimises the number of clicks to get to the video creating better UX for the audience. Although this makes it easier for everyone who uses YouTube, it also means the content produced needs to be captivating and what the viewers is looking for as the snippets will help assess whether they want to click on it or not. Making sure your thumbnail image is relevant and attractive as well as making your video appealing is important from beginning to end.
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