Ask HN: What do you think would happen if Google and YouTube split? Technologically speaking, what things would break?
Right now, I think of two services that would be impacted:
∙ Google TV/YouTube Movies & TV libraries
∙ YouTube Music's catalog Sorry for not exactly understanding how both work, this is just more of what I asked in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41946885 |
Realistically, once the division is somehow negotiated through, Youtube will have to find a way to make enough money to support its operations, and would find itself in the same bind that every other video site has hit in terms of balancing adoption with income.
The only barrier they will not have to face is competing against Youtube, the big free elephant in the room.
And why would losing a subsidy mean increasing prices? As far as I can tell consumers think YouTube's offerings are overpriced as is and they could probably increase profit by lowering them, especially if it's not their parent's add subsidiary they'd be cannibalising.
If its spun off then the platform has to stand on its own and it would need to make more money.
As a customer you really just have to ask yourself what you're willing to give up when paying for a YouTube analog. Content creators aren't going to engage in a mass exodus unless they're convinced their audience will follow them to other platforms.
And of course the benefits are so large as to be difficult to enumerate.
For example, searching for recipes sometimes shows me Political News, and sometimes the news is even in a different country, and in a language that I don't speak.
Sometimes I also get a few results that are not just irrelevant, but intentionally made to have a visually repulsive thumbnail, like a zoomed-in shot of some skin pathology, which is something that I never search for or click upon. No idea what is happening there.
How to block some posters from ever showing up in my search results?...
Sadly not fixed
https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/tebv1z/comment/ihb...
if you are really adventurous
Although it generates a large amount of revenue, YouTube's costs are substantially higher. It provides Google with engagement and a prime source of user data, so subsidising it has been an acceptable trade-off for Alphabet. Recent attempts to increase revenue, although partially successful, have shown that the platform is unlikely to pay its own way because universal accessibility is fundamental to YouTube's success; removal of the free level is not a viable option.
If this is true, why bother with ads? It's completely ruined the platform.
That figure does not include 100 million subscribers (2024).
I am outside my comfort zone but I would bet youtube would thrive without google if those numbers are correct. And it is for sure large enough to not need google for bulk deals etc.
(I did notice today that Google video search was dominated by Tiktok results rather than youtube for the first time)
Ultimately we disabled YouTube in the Google admin panel for the organization, and advised the users to start sharing an unrelated Gmail account to manage the org's YouTube page.
I can't imagine un-merging the service logins to go any better.
Personally, I might start paying a subscription for YouTube. I wouldn't be forced to use a Google account for YouTube, and I would actually invest in my YouTube account.
Most importantly I would start trusting YouTube if it parts its way with Google.
EDIT: Still, point taken. I'll try to figure out how to install this on my home router—I don't ever watch youtube from my browser.
YouTube could enforce the content creator to tag the sponsored segments.
For some reason, free and ad free YouTube seems like a birthright to so many people.
If Google didn't promote YouTube so heavily, permitted channels to migrate to other services (like how they permit Blogger blogs to migrate to other websites), bundled a generic streaming video player with Android (e.g. VLC) instead of the YouTube app… then maybe I'd be more sympathetic to the position of content blocker opponents. To convince me to pay for YouTube, you have to offer me something other than "we've locked a capability of your computer away, but you can get it back if you pay us!".
> a modest fee for a non-tracking, ad-free, non-enshittified YouTube
And YT Premium is
[x] modest fee - I could argue that either way (is $14/mo really "modest"?), but let's allow it
[ ] non-tracking - not that I'm aware of
[~] ad-free - partially; right now YT itself won't add more ads, so you're just left with the ads that uploaders embed
[~] non-enshittified - depends what you mean; ex. I believe it does restore the ability to play audio with the screen off, but not downvoting
-Start your YT video (from iOS app) -Swipe up to have the floating player while it plays. -Swipe down from top center to bring down your notifications bar. The video will automatically pause but you’ll have the large play button right there. -Hit play -while still on the notification bar screen, and while the audio starts playing again: Swipe down from the top right corner to bring up your control center. - now turn off your screen and audio should still play.
This has been working for me for a while. Don’t recall where i first came across it but it’s been a few years now.
I don’t use it often because I have streaming services with higher audio quality but it’s nice to not worry about accidentally tapping the screen while listening to YT. Esp if you wanna keep the phone in your pocket. Also saves battery juice.
Cheers.