YouTube has introduced a new permanent fixture to the iOS, Android, and desktop versions of its service — a ‘Trending’ tab that will surface viral videos in real time.
Going forward, this will essentially be the home on the web for viral videos, especially videos that are going viral right at this very moment.
“This new tab in your YouTube app delivers the top trending videos directly to your Android, iOS, and desktop device. It’s the best way to catch the videos, creators, and trends that people watch, share, and talk about each and every day.”
According to The Verge, YouTube’s Trending tab uses an algorithm based on comments, views, and “external references.” Instead of recommending popular videos on the homepage, this tab will be the new place to find popular/trending videos.
VentureBeat reports the content displayed in the Trending tab may vary based on location, and will in no way be influenced by a user’s viewing history. In addition, if some particularly explicit videos are trending,they may be manually filtered out of the tab.
Manual filtering suggests that YouTube can override the algorithm to add or remove content from the tab at any time. That may be why the recent YouTube Rewind video is pinned to the top of the Trending tab right now, even though it may not be the most viral video at the moment.
In any case, it looks like this tab will be a mostly reliable source for keeping up with videos that either have gone viral, or are going viral. It will be interesting to see what kind of effect being featured in Trending will on a video’s traffic. Are people actually going to pay attention to the trending tab? I guess we will see over time.
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