Thumbnail Test & Compare to 100% of Eligible Creators 🎉 and Notes Experiment!

Hello Insiders! Today, we're excited to share that Thumbnail Test & Compare is available to 100% of eligible creators. We're also testing a new feature with the goal of offering viewers more context and information on videos.

Check it out and leave us your comments and questions below!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:08 [Launch] Thumbnail Test and Compare to 100% of Eligible Creators!
0:58 [Experiment] Notes

Links:
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Remember, by commenting here or submitting Unlisted video links to email aliases associated with the channel, your comments, videos and username may be used in an upcoming video.

Creator Insider is an informal YouTube channel to share information from the YouTube Creator technical team with the wider Creator community. We will feature different people talking about the products they work on and changes we are making so you have more context.

[stellarfax]

I love test and compare, what they need now is test and compare for video titles.

[chubbyemu]

Notes in videos where the topic is based on specialized knowledge will have the potential to cause endless fights and arguments. This is especially so when the person making the note only has internet search as their reference and is missing important contextual information specific to the field where the knowledge is applied. Further, the discovery of knowledge is continuously in progress (science and medicine) or something was concluded or reported based on subjective points (news or business or law).

This will result in a seriously degraded viewer experience when notes are plastered all over videos, or worse, when the viewer finds themselves dragged into one of these arguments in favor for or against some note.

X implements this feature. X’s user base has been shrinking. YouTube leads this space. YouTube doesn’t need to follow X.

[newpianotutorials]

We really need the CTR as well as the watch time on Thumbnail Test in order to make an informed decision on what's best for our individual channel, otherwise higher watch time with no regard to whether that means more or less views is only beneficial for YouTube as a whole and not the individual channel.

[IMRROcom]

I do not need or want users adding notes to videos with out my permission, with out the ability for me to delete those notes.

[MetalJesusRocks]

Notes on videos seems like it would be easily abused by Drama and Troll channels that go after other creators. I can see them mobilizing their followers to go and flood another channel they don’t like or have beef with to create these notes on other people’s videos.

[NecroNicki]

Can we turn this notes feature off? I don’t want notes on my videos.

[sponsorly]

Great to see this finally added for everyone! 🎉 A thumbnail and title essentially serve as an ad for a video and should be treated with the same level of care.

Next, let's see a feature that allows us to mass schedule tests with more detailed metrics (CTRs, demographics etc)

Most creators with us spend weeks or months on a video, but usually only a couple of hours on the actual thumbnail without testing variations. It's an easy mistake to make unless you come from a performance marketing background. With experience it's clear that the algorithm looks for disconnects between the thumbnail and watch time.

[airailimages]

One thing I'm not clear on -- can notes only be added by the channel owner, or can viewers add notes? Bad potential for abuse if viewers can add notes to a different channel's videos. Can this feature be turned Off or On?

[DesolatorMagic]

You guys don't seem to understand how A/B testing works. You can't show different thumbnails to the SAME person. That just confused people and results in angry accidental 2nd clicks.

[KevinKolbe]

I don't see the reason at all for the Notes feature. Unless disabled, we already have comments which viewers can say almost anything on, even correcting a video.

Also who's to say or decide that the person leaving a Note knows more than the person who created the video?!

Most of the new features I get excited about or at least understand. This one seems so unneeded and a train wreck waiting to happen. Seriously hope this never gets past the Beta testing.

[miloshk]

Thumbnail comparison is the most important feature released lately, thank you!!! I already see cases of substantial divergence from what I confidently considered best thunbnail

[Qiuvox]

Let us change or pick the shorts thumbnails on pc studio please

[ShihanZen]

Can't users already leave a note on videos in the form of a comment? It's not clear to me what the point is of having a separate comment section called notes. What's the difference?

[Greinerdavid]

I was super excited of getting Test & Compare finally. I always make +3 Thumbnails. Unfortunately some big channels found out that this feature has lots of flaws. They tested multiple times the SAME EXACT thumbnail and got a huge difference in watch time. Therefore, this feature doesn't say anything ... Pls YouTube team fix this

[MySonsMother]

Will you be addressing the problems found by Channel Makers in their video on this subject?

[Chief]

can YouTube fix the algorithm, my shorts are regularly sent out to people who search things that have absolutely nothing... and I mean nothing, to do with my videos. when I check the search terms that people were looking for it really makes no sense. I would appreciate if YouTube did better at serving smaller creators short form videos to people who would actually watch them. THANKS!

[AmandaBLovesMusic]

Thank You for Your video Creator Insider, I appreciate the update about Test and Compare, however please kindly reconsider the experiment for Notes? Creators / Channel Owners should Always be allowed to Moderate their Channels, not a voting system & Third Party Evaluators on behalf of YouTube, with all due respect! 😳 Comments are more than sufficient. I’ve read extra info you kindly provided on other comments replies though this doesn’t explain how this will most likely be misused! I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic. Creators spend weeks, months, years researching their Niche / Topic & we spend time Creating videos, yes everyone makes mistakes, no-one’s perfect, though a Note added to a Video Without the Creator’s permission is not needed, esp. as the Creator cannot moderate or remove the Note! I mean no disrespect though I strongly advise You to reconsider this bizarre & unhelpful experiment which has not been requested. Thank You.

[ProfSimonHolland]

notes sound good. UK filmmakers need it NOW

[AlexTimm]

Is there a reason thumbnail test and compare is not available for live streams? (Neither when scheduling, or after when it is a video on demand replay)

[AndysAwesomeAdventures]

It's great to have the Test and Compare option, but I'm currently running about 10 Test and Compare tests, and it looks like only one has enough watch time to give me the percentages for each thumbnail. So basically, you need enough watch time to get thumbnail results to help you figure out which thumbnail will get more watch time, but you can't get the watch time you need until you know the thumbnail results, which you won't get because there's not enough watch time during the test. It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.