Published August 24
From Monday, YouTube will count a view the moment a video begins to play — first frame, zero seconds, really — and it will do that across every format: long-form, livestreams, Shorts, the lot.
The old standard for non-Shorts videos, roughly 30 seconds but never officially confirmed, retires to a drawer in YouTube Analytics marked Advanced Mode, where it will live out its days under the name “engaged views.”
YouTube says this is about “consistency.” Shorts views were already counted at the first frame since last year. It says this will help creators “confidently express their true scale and value to brand partners and sponsors.”
Because your average viewer is as likely to finish a 10-second Short as they are a 15-minute vlog or 30-minute documentary. That makes total sense to Crawler. At least it does after a couple of gin and tonics.
Crawler would like to raise a glass to writer Cory Doctorow, who has a rather good word for this sort of deterioration. (Note to editor: It’s in the dictionary now, so you can’t stop me.)
Enshittification: A platform is lovely to users, then lovely to business customers, and once everyone is safely aboard, things become rather less lovely. Doctorow calls that Stage 3. Advertisers, it seems, are invited to dinner.
YouTube’s users have already had their dinner from the prix fixe menu: a starter of two 20-second unskippables, a daily special of three ads in a row mid-video, finishing with a sweet “Premium” ad-free tier priced at “make it stop.”
The inventory, though, is not getting any better. Kapwing found 1 in 5 Shorts served to a fresh account is AI slop; 278 channels of it had racked up 63 billion views and an estimated $117 million a year in ad revenue.
Some of which, technically speaking, is likely to be your ad spend. Do enjoy the next course.
When Marketing Brew asked whether brands could opt out of adjacency to AI-generated content, Google explained its controls are based on what a video is about, not how it was made.
Ah, one moment. Crawler almost forgot the coffee and petits fours. Because all of that beautiful, abundant and oh-so-valuable ad inventory is bought and measured inside Google’s own pipes. But that’s a chat for another day since roughly 2015. Crawler wouldn’t want to cause indigestion after such a delightful meal.
To be fair, as Crawler is contractually obliged to say once per column, TikTok and Instagram count views the same way, and everyone’s feed has some slop in it.
Which does beg the question: Is YouTube television, or is it social media? Will someone in San Bruno just make a decision? It’s not rocket science, but maybe it is quantum mechanics. Open the box and Schrödinger’s cat is apparently watching TV and scrolling Shorts at the same time.
Philosophical debates aside, marketers are already telling the press this change won’t change … much of anything. YouTube has been on a roll the past few years. The numbers look great, they really do; and from Monday, they will look even better.
Mrs. Crawler should know. Mr. Crawler has long insisted that a gym visit begins the moment he parks the car. And look at him.
Mrs. Crawler, meanwhile, will be adopting YouTube’s methodology. She would like to welcome the many new readers this column will have from Monday, all of whom opened it and none of whom got this far.
Crawler is a satirical take on the biggest ad tech news of the week. It’s penned by editors of The Current, which is owned by The Trade Desk. Have your own take? Reach us at [email protected].
