In order to help users find topics, channels, and videos they will enjoy, YouTube today announced that it will be promoting auto-generated channels in more places around the site. These channels will be popping up in the “Recommended for You” section of the site, the channels page, and video pages.
The announcement came on The Official YouTube blog, where Mur Viswanathan, a Google product manager, outlined the layout changes that have been implemented. From the blog post:
Lots of complex algorithms are working behind the scenes to give you the channel you’re looking for, for example, being able to tell when the word ‘Chicago’ means the music band and when it means the movie/musical. We’re still tweaking everything to make sure it works just right for you, so let us know what you think of the channels or learn more in our help center.
YouTube has been auto-generating channels based on search topics, and putting them in the “Top YouTube Collections” tab, for over a year now. The channels are often based on niche topics such as “Yoga” or “Big Wave Surfing,” as seen in the picture above. The channels function the same as other channels, allowing users to subscribe and follow a topic. To tell if a channel has been auto-generated by YouTube, users should look for the “auto generated by YouTube” message below the channel’s title.
It seems that YouTube is now confident enough in their auto-generating algorithms to begin promoting the feature more publicly. What do you think? Are auto-generated channels useful or annoying? Have you spotted any of these on YouTube yet? Leave a comment below and let us know.