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Youtube Social Networks Technology

YouTube Will Remove All Pop-up Annotations on January 15 (engadget.com) 91

Posted by msmash from the good-riddance dept.
Early last year, YouTube announced that it would be retiring annotations, those boxes that pop up during a video with links and additional information. It discontinued the annotations editor in May of last year and soon all existing annotations will be going away as well. From a report: The company added an update to the help page announcing the end of its annotations editor, saying, "We will stop showing existing annotations to viewers starting January 15, 2019. All existing annotations will be removed."
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YouTube Will Remove All Pop-up Annotations on January 15 More

YouTube Will Remove All Pop-up Annotations on January 15

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  • I would just be happy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OYAHHH ( 322809 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @05:44PM (#57711140)

    If they would stop placing the links to additional videos during the last few seconds of the video I am watching. Is this the popup annotations as described?

    Regardless, it is highly annoying to have additional video icons displayed prior to the end of the video I am watching. These "adverts" block some pretty interesting material in many cases.

    • Hmm..first I've heard of the normal annotations being removed.

      WTF are they doing that? It is a great way to give viewers extra info, like a Part 1 if they hit Part 2 first...etc.

      • Ok...after posting.

        I actually went and read the article....missed that one the first time around.

        I guess they can do what they want, but I found that if I wait til the end to try to go back and look for the reference earlier in the video they mentioned, I'd forget to do so and miss out.

      • Re:I would just be happy (Score:5, Insightful)

        by lgw ( 121541 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @05:58PM (#57711256) Journal

        The were abused badly. Hidden rectangles that covered e.g. the volume control tht linked to "subscribe", for example. This is why we can't have nice things.

        Which sucks, because YouTube has no good way to edit a video once posted (much like Slashdot), so annotations were the one way you could correct a stupid mistake after the fact, by popping up a correction as you said the stupid thing.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 )
          I am pretty sure they were removed mostly in part is that they didn't work all that great on mobile
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

          • What if swearing at the camera is the content?

            It may be that the videos are already heavily edited, you just didn't understand the specific production values that are popular now.

            Or, maybe you're just not very good at selecting videos you will then enjoy?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by lgw ( 121541 )

            You can remove the video. Or take more time editing. Using a script helps a lot.

            These are not viable substitutes. Let me give you an example: the PBS SpaceTime channel. It's professionally produced and scripted, but they sometimes get their physics wrong, and have it pointed out by the comments.

            So what should they do? Ideally, update the video. YouTube doesn't allow that. Replacing the video is entirely useless, as YouTube doesn't have a re-direct. So what they do is acknowledge the error and talk about it in the next video, witch is nice but totally useless if youre not watching

      • Re:I would just be happy (Score:4, Interesting)

        by The Original CDR ( 5453236 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @06:05PM (#57711292)
        Annotations work great on the desktop. Not so much on mobile. And mobile is where most videos are being watched these days. Mobile also has no ad blockers to prevent ads from being shown..

      • Re: I would just be happy (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        They don't want you to ever get to Part 2 and beyond, they want you to get distracted by trending feeds and targeted ads.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Those are end cards that can appear in the last 20 seconds of the video. If enabled for older videos and videos without a dedicated end card screen, the end cards will overlay existing content. A dedicated end card screen can be added to the video before uploading to YouTube.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      nope. that's an advertisement.

      the annotations are just that. text notes added by the creator.

      this is a very nice feature for 'how to' type videoo that is being discontinued and de-published (as the existing annotations will be lost).

      as is the case with everything else google. don't ever count on it.. for anything.

    • Yes! Thank you!

    • If they would stop placing the links to additional videos during the last few seconds of the video I am watching. Is this the popup annotations as described?...

      I don't think that's it, actually; those are paid promotional links... and they're definitely not going away. Rather, the best example of popup annotations that I've seen would be in this captioned version of Witch Doctor [youtube.com].

      Note that the popups already fail to display within some of the more modern video players, such as on iOS... so for those of you who don't have access to a more "traditional" computing device: the most obvious series of popups in the video are a set of random colored blocks which abruptly

  • Sometimes the annotations are awesome. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Killall -9 Bash ( 622952 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @05:49PM (#57711198)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Whoever sent you this link is doing you a massive fucking favor.

    • A few comments:

      Breanna
      I have no idea why I like this band so much.

      Imster
      this is the kind of music that I should really hate but I really love it and I don't know why is Jimmy brainwashing us it's so addictive

      F*ck everybody else

    • Kinda reminds me of GWAR with better music and more WooooHooo's instead of Aaaaaarrrghhhhh's.

  • Add missing information (Score:3)

    by SmaryJerry ( 2759091 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @05:57PM (#57711244)
    I thought these annotations were used sort of as a post uploading editing feature. People always correct what they said, provide links to their new video about a topic or whatever. That said I'm happy to see them go.

    • Re:Add missing information (Score:4, Informative)

      by Sigma 7 ( 266129 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @08:02PM (#57711836)

      People always correct what they said, provide links to their new video about a topic or whatever.

      If only there was a place where they could write some text to provide some errata. Maybe it could be placed below the video, perhaps after the major title, and account that uploaded the video... placing it before the comments...

      It would be quite a useful feature if it were implemented. /s

      But really, I've seen obnoxious use of annotations outnumber the proper use.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        They always say "check the description down below for the link", and I'm like "how do I do that on my smart TV? can't you just put the URL on the screen or a QR code I can scan with my phone?"

        But alas they always make me open the video again on my phone or PC just to get that link.

        It's even worse when there are vital corrections in the description, and I never see it because a) I usually watch on a smart TV and b) I rarely look at the description even on desktop.

        A compromise solution would be forced subtitl

  • In the ongoing Google tradition of making shit worse, the cards have always been terrible. They are worse than what they are trying to replace.

  • Legitimate uses (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There is a guy who i subscribe to who uses annotations to point to previous videos that he makes reference to (even points to the top of the screen when he makes them) to give you more context on what they are talking about, it's a pity they are retiring it as they are useful. I can understand that they want the platform to the same across any device but if that's the case why do i need to pay for youtube red if i want to minimize the app on my phone? i can minimise the tab in my browser on my computer.

  • Good-bye Kaizo Trap (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepples.gmail@com> on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @06:09PM (#57711322) Homepage Journal

    Removing annotations will break the concept of Kaizo Trap [youtube.com] and other interactive works that use YouTube as a substitute for the deprecated Adobe Flash Player.

  • Value add (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Maybe these annotations can be abused, but in my experience, they usually add helpful notes to a video (e.g. "look at this thing over here!") without needing to be baked in. Kind of like a subtitle track, but more freeform.

    This is going to remove a lot of the value-add of watching videos in the actual YouTube viewer (Web page, app, whatever). This was always one of the big arguments against just pulling videos down with youtube-dl and watching them in mplayer/VLC, and they're getting rid of it. I don't unde

    • To each his own. I want to watch videos not obscured by annotations that may, or may not, be interesting.

      • You always had the option to turn off annotations. To each his own is so last decade. Now it's to everybody the most oversimplified phone-optimized interface.

  • Wait for it (Score:3)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @06:12PM (#57711352)
    I'm sure they something even more annoying in mind. Wait for it.

  • Strange days lie ahead for Youtube (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    WTF are all these people pointing at?

  • What are these cards they speak of?
    I have never came across one that I recall.

    The end screen idea was nice, but it really didn't do anything that the annotations didn't.
  • These cards often are posted right near the end of a video. I click on the video to pause it and end up hitting one of the links. I doubt that's a coincidence. Should use spacebar instead though.

  • Good fucking riddance! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2018 @06:47PM (#57711562)
    I've found it incredibly stupid to have those popup in the middle of a video - what am I supposed to do with those? Click on them, thereby stop watching what I currently want to watch before it's done?!?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Trogre ( 513942 )

      You know you can just turn them off, right?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        You know you can just turn them off, right?

        Looking at the settings in the YouTube app on both iOS and Android, I don't see any option to turn them off.

        And if you have to log into your Google account to find that option, well, fuck that complicated, obfuscated shit.

  • These were used primary for * Check out my other videoooooozzz!!!! * LIKE THARE AND THUBTHCRIBE!!!!!!!1111111oneoneoneelevencos(0) Finally it will be nice to see that garbage gone (at least when using a public terminal, since I've had that garbage blocked long, long ago).

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    I will really miss John Robertson's "Dark Room", A maze of little youtube clips linked together via annotations.

    Mapping out the original 2012 maze was pleasant evenings' diversion. And I learned more about the war between steam and electricity.

  • Can they do something about the videos with the fake robot voiceover that reads wikipedia entries next?

  • Understandable but a pity as well (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Many annotations were very annoying and spam like. However, back when I made quite a lot of youtube videos, I occasionally added a few annotations based on questions of people in the comments, a bit of extra clarification. That was a good use.

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