YouTube

YouTube is an online video publishing platform, founded in 2005 and purchased by Google in 2006. According to Statista, it is the second most-visited website in the world behind Google and ahead of Facebook, Wikipedia, and Amazon in descending order. It can be accessed via internet browser at YouTube.com, and mobile apps are available on major mobile operating systems. In addition, many smart TV’s, game consoles, and other devices include a YouTube app or the ability to install one. YouTube hosts a staggering amount of content, with roughly 30,000 hours of content uploaded to the site per hour as of 2020. Much of it is “user generated” content, posted by anyone with an account (though many enter partnership agreements in order to receive royalties and a cut of ad revenue), as well as news agencies, music companies, television and film rightsholders, and other professional groups. YouTube hosts essentially anything that abides by its Terms of Service and Community Guidelines, and due to the sheer volume of content uploaded to the site, much that does not. One of YouTube’s most lucrative and high-view-count sections is YouTube Kids, a subsection of the platform with content restricted to material deemed appropriate for young children. While content in that section often draws staggering view counts (a video for the song “Baby Shark” has over ten billion views at time of writing), this section will focus on searching the main, unrestricted app.

How to Search

YouTube’s search bar is at the top of the webpage (as pictured above) and can be accessed on the app interface (Android pictured here) by tapping the magnifying glass icon. As a Google service, YouTube’s interface has been adapted for many different kinds of devices and the location of the search tool will vary depending on what kind of device it is accessed on, but the browser and mobile app interfaces are the most common and the process does not vary too significantly on other devices.

How does YouTube search work?

YouTube’s own explanation of its search process claims that it “prioritize[s] three main elements…: relevance, engagement, and quality.” It estimates relevance based on “many factors, such as how well the title, tags, description, and video content match your search query,” or metadata, in other words. Engagement is a behind-the-scenes term for video metrics that are not all accessible or known to viewers, but are often made available to posters of videos, like the average watchtime of a video (longer is considered better, both because it helps establish the relevance of the video to the search term, and because longer watchtimes increase the likelihood of advertisement exposure). “Quality” is potentially the most subjective criterion here, described by YouTube as “signals that can help determine which channels demonstrate expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness on a given topic.” They do not expound beyond a mention that “YouTube doesn’t accept payment for better placement within organic search results,” though “organic search results” is also undefined. Finally, YouTube search results are also affected by prior searches and watch history, if the user does not opt out of that data being recorded to their account.

Searching YouTube Critically

That last factor in curating search results is potentially one of the most problematic, though all the factors can compound toward unpleasant results in interesting ways. Creators and viewers have observed a “pipeline” effect that tends to push viewers toward extreme content over time, and the phenomenon has since become the object of academic study in addition to conversation on the platform. A working paper hosted on ArXiv demonstrates the existence of “radicalization pathways” from mainstream news channels which post videos on YouTube, into content produced by “intellectual dark web” figures like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson, then from there into “alt-lite” content, and from there into alt-right videos produced by figures like the neo-Nazi Richard Spencer (prior to his removal from the platform) and others who openly endorse white supremacy, fascism, and other destructive ideologies. While simply clicking on recommended videos can quickly lead a user down these pathways on a new account or device without an account, what is most important to note here is that search results are affected by the user’s profile, including watch and search histories.


While the effect of the watch history may seem understandable and we all often accommodate weird results served to us as a product of some algorithmic misfire or miscalculation (personally, I recall years ago getting near-constant ads as a single man in my early 20’s for maternity clothing), the influence of previous search terms is critical. We need to be cognizant not just of the language we use in our searches, but of the way certain terms are used in different communities and for what purposes. A term we may use to describe a group of people might inadvertently tell YouTube something about our politics and shape our search results. As soon as a single search is recorded, all subsequent searches are affected by it, which then shapes what we see, and what information and ideas we are exposed to. And remember, engagement with videos is what makes it profitable for people and organizations to upload them. Merely engaging at all with a video can contribute both to the uploader's bottom line, and to YouTube's incentive to platform harmful and extreme content.

Takeaways

  • YouTube’s search feature uses opaque, seemingly-subjective measures to serve content that is “relevant” inasmuch as it keeps our eyes on our screens. Whether it prioritizes watchtime or actual responsiveness to the query is uncertain.

  • YouTube searches are affected by our prior behavior on the platform (and potentially on other Google services). We should never assume that our search results are agnostic of our politics, interests, social groups, preferred breakfast cereal, or anything else about our lives given how much data Google has about us.

  • The combination of YouTube’s search function and its recommendations will have a tendency to push us toward extreme perspectives over time, and we are unlikely to notice as it’s occurring.