eevBLAB 95 - Why Are Youtube Playlists So BAD?

Over a decade spent categorising videos into Playlists, and all for nothing?
Rant on why Playlists don't work and how it's such a neglected Youtube feature, and a way to improve it.
This is important for eclectic channels like the EEVblog that have a wide variety of content that relies on Playlists for sorting.

Support the EEVblog on:

Buy anything through that link and Dave gets a commission at no cost to you.

Donate With Bitcoin & Other Crypto Currencies!
#ElectronicsCreators #Youtube #Playlists

[foggygray]

As a watcher I wish we could reverse the playlist play order. It is annoying when the playlists aren't in chronological order.

[DumahBrazorf]

The sad funny thing is there is a playlist in this page, down below some other videos: a mix playlist! Dave puts effort on cathegorizing his videos and YT propose random unrelated ones.

[CaseyConnor]

I think the answer to "why?" in this case is that YouTube wants neither the creator nor the viewer influencing what video they watch next (beyond simple signals of what their basic interests are). That is, the goal isn't getting videos people want to watch in front of their eyeballs, the goal is to maximize revenue, and YouTube has decided (no doubt accurately) that if they leave things up to the viewers and/or creators it may maximize edification/education/entertainment, but it doesn't maximize profit... As a music education youtuber I can feel the algorithm whispering to me that if I make a video that inspires someone to stop watching youtube and pick up their instrument my video will be punished. I think the same dynamic explains why subscriber count doesn't mean much anymore; I have 60k subscribers and if I post a video I'm guaranteed like 100-200 views if the algorithm doesn't smile upon me. It's also (AFAICT) why the comment section is so buggy and useless -- people talking to each other in effective threaded conversations, building community, sharing knowledge... that doesn't help the bottom line. So the UX is all designed for spoonfeeding rather than empowering users to discover things they really want to discover. The playlist feature and the subscription mechanism are technically still around, I suspect only because of the fear of user revolt, but sometimes it feels like just a matter of time until they go the way of the dislike button.

Edit: also, I always put the playlist link in the description and a card on the video with it as well... I think it helps to raise awareness that the feature even exists. 98% of the friends I have don't even subscribe to channels, much less understand playlists, etc.

[lilstubthumb]

I always go to the playlists section when I find a new channel I'm interested in. I'm usually looking for long term projects with multiple parts. Wish YT used this more. Why can't Odysee take this as a chance to beat YT to a feature for once?

[mountvernon]

I very rarely use playlists, and when I do as soon as the video loads I edit the URL and remove the list info then force a reload. If I don't, YouTube has decided that I want to auto-run every video in the list, even though I have AutoRun turned off. If the only link to a video opens it in a playlist I strip the list info and force it to play that single video without having it run into whatever comes after it. I find that aspect of the way they implement playlists extremely irritating.

[DiverJames]

Playlist notifications/subscriptions - YES! I’d love to be able to get notifications for new content in specific playlists. Also, improving playlist discovery like you suggest is a good step too. Totally agree with you. However, YouTube exists for the advertisers, not the content creators or the viewers…so we’ll never see any of this 😣 Maybe there’s room for a third party tool/site to provide alternate notification services that people actually want?

[dhpbear]

I don't click on 'playlists' either; there's no apparent 'bookmark' one can go back to to continue viewing videos in a given playlist.
This feature looks like an afterthought that was developed on a Friday!

[MaikKellerhals]

For me a big problem is that you can't play a playlist in reverse order.
Many crators put the newest video first in the list, but when i want to watch them in release order, i can't do it without manually clicking each one from the "bottom up"

[Sebazzz]

If you look from the perspective that YouTube just wants to serve a lots of ads, instead of showing the viewer what it wants (quality video's vs hidden downvotes; force subscriptions of channels vs not showing playlists ), a lot of decisions are making sense.

[ianthehunter]

I'd usually scroll down to the description to see playlist-related content, but I feel you.

[chrstphrr]

As mainly a viewer of content, I *heavily* use playlists to organized watched videos into groups, for years and years. The playlist feature list is very abbreviated. There's no simple "search" for me to search through the dozens of playlists I've made over the years to help me to zero in on the list I want... If I want to add a video to a playlist I last looked at 2 years ago, I have to scroll through and find it myself. Easy for 2-3 playlists... but I probably have just as many as Davey boy here! There's no way to merge, prune, purge, or easily edit entries in the playlists. It's no wonder they are underused given how neglected the feature set is.

[ashtreylil]

I have sent feedback to YouTube countless times asking them to allow the "subscribe to playlist" feature.

[deiviuds]

I'm always going through yours playlists or the search feature inside the channel, when I am looking for specifics topics, I LOVE the way you organizes this channel!!!

[limtbk]

I think, the problem is that same video could be in many playlists (relation as 1 to *). And YouTube has no algorythm to choose one from many. So, you can put playlist link into description as one of solution/workaround.

[charliefoxglove]

Regarding lack of views from notifications, I can't imagine anything more annoying than getting a notification every time a new video goes live. Never understood the need to enable notifications either, as without fail the channels I subscribe to appear in my Subscriptions list.

[Rick.]

Put the playsist in the description. YT need to learn with Amazon algoritm, it so anoying when YT sugest videos I already watched. Anyway we're in their hands

[joeynessily]

Interesting to see the stats on views from notifications. I’ve used subscriptions on youtube since day 1. I’ve got hundreds and I ONLY use the subscriptions page on my TV or ipad, going through all new content, in time order pretty much every day. I’ve NEVER used the notification bell thing. It’s completely worthless. I open Youtube when I have time to watch something, what use is a video alert in the middle of the day when I’m at work or doing something else..?

[MLeoDaalder]

Youtube used to have playlist subscriptions, which suddenly stopped working at some point.

Same with e-mail notifications, youtube has completely stopped sending them except for live-stream/premiere reminders (provided you actually clicked the Remind Me button). Anything else is put in the bell icon at the top of the screen on desktop, and I suppose if you allow it, browser notifications. But that system is completely unworkable for the average person with a day job, so now I'm stuck visiting the subscriptions page.

[dhpbear]

It is possible to include a given video on more than one playlist. Maybe Youtube considers it a problem to list all playlists that that video appears on.

[fredygump]

Dave, regarding the notifications, I get "notified" through my subscriptions list on my home page! And I don't actually use the gmail account that youtube is connected to, so email notifications don't reach me. Even if I did use that account, there is no reality in which I want my inbox over-run with new video notifications! I suspect others feel the same? I don't know who that feature is for, but I don't understand it.