Google has been testing its G+ button in replacement of YouTube’s standard thumbs up / thumbs down rating system for a while now, but you probably have not noticed. The G+ button appears in only a select few users’ accounts and disappears soon after. I have only noticed the G+ icon appear once, and it disappeared when I went to watch another video later that day.
Google has been testing its G+ button in replacement of YouTube’s standard thumbs up / thumbs down rating system for a while now, but you probably have not noticed. The G+ button appears in only a select few users’ accounts and disappears soon after. I have only noticed the G+ icon appear once, and it disappeared when I went to watch another video later that day.
Because YouTube is owned by Google, it is not a surprise that they would try to incorporate their own products onto YouTube (for example, all new YouTube accounts need to be connected with a Google account). However, there are a couple of flaws with this new rating system.
First, there is no “thumbs down” equivalent to a +1. This means that viewers will find it more difficult to judge the quality of a video before they view it. Second, there is currently no option to rate a video without it being permanently associated to your Google+ account, where all of your connections (and possibly advertisers) will have a record of the videos you rated a +1. This is another layer of tracking your actions that most internet users do not appreciate. All of the opinions that I have read online from regular YouTube users have been negative. Finally, the rating system itself is still buggy, although that is understandable because it is still in a testing phase. Right now half of the pop-up that appears when you click the G+ button is being covered by the video itself.
I believe Google+ integration with YouTube is inevitable, although it remains to be seen how Google will decide to do this. Will YouTube incorporate the G+ button on all videos in the future?
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