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Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I have no data to back this

by JackCh 8y ago

Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I have no data to back this up, but I suspect users with no accounts or users who aren't signed in account for a sizable portion of the youtube audience.

rhapsodic 8y ago
>Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I have no data to back this up, but I suspect users with no accounts or users who aren't signed in account for a sizable portion of the youtube audience. That's true for me. I'm not on FB, and even publicly-accessible pages will throw up a "Please login" screen after a few seconds. So I see very little FB content. OTOH, I watch plenty of Youtube videos, and I can see, AFAICT, all of the non-paid content even when I'm not logged in.
slackoverflower 8y ago
I definitely would not say it is a sizable portion. I'd say it is infact a minority of Youtube's audience. Their CEO revealed they have 1.8b logged in users [1] every month watching videos. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billion-logged-in-monthly-users-brandcast-2018 https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billi...
- kgwgk 8y ago
  But do they log in consistently? I log in by mistake every now and then, but I use it without being logged in 99.9% of the time.
  - cheeze 8y ago
    This isn't a huge percentage of the time for me, but I often use a device that isn't logged into anything because it's using the android builtin browser, someone elses computer, etc. Not having to care about logging in is a benefit.
- Pfhreak 8y ago
  Sizeable and minority are two totally different markers of scale. 25% of something is a sizeable chunk, but still the minority...
- ekianjo 8y ago
  >Their CEO revealed they have 1.8b logged in users That's what you get when you are logged in in gmail at the same time. It's not like people WANT to log in on Youtube, it's just a side effect of a google account login on some other service.
jadedhacker 8y ago
Youtube piggy backs on Google logins, so if you're signed into gmail, you'll be a logged in user.
- cheeze 8y ago
  But you can watch videos without being logged in. Which for me is a big benefit when I'm not using a device that I own. I don't have to worry about logging in at all.
retrogradeorbit 8y ago
Can confirm. I don't have a google account or a facebook account. I watch videos on youtube and it functions perfectly. However facebook is totally unusable without an account.
Lionsion 8y ago
> Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I think it's something a bit more general: Facebook is all about getting people to do, right now, what's good for Facebook, and it's willing to break things and get in your face to accomplish that. Youtube, and Google generally, seem to be much more OK with just providing a consistent, approachable service; and letting the users use it naturally. In the long term, that seems like the better strategy because it doesn't burn trust like it grows on trees.

by JackCh 8y ago

rhapsodic 8y ago

>Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I have no data to back this up, but I suspect users with no accounts or users who aren't signed in account for a sizable portion of the youtube audience. That's true for me. I'm not on FB, and even publicly-accessible pages will throw up a "Please login" screen after a few seconds. So I see very little FB content. OTOH, I watch plenty of Youtube videos, and I can see, AFAICT, all of the non-paid content even when I'm not logged in.

slackoverflower 8y ago

I definitely would not say it is a sizable portion. I'd say it is infact a minority of Youtube's audience. Their CEO revealed they have 1.8b logged in users [1] every month watching videos. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billion-logged-in-monthly-users-brandcast-2018 https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billi...

kgwgk 8y ago
But do they log in consistently? I log in by mistake every now and then, but I use it without being logged in 99.9% of the time.
- cheeze 8y ago
  This isn't a huge percentage of the time for me, but I often use a device that isn't logged into anything because it's using the android builtin browser, someone elses computer, etc. Not having to care about logging in is a benefit.
Pfhreak 8y ago
Sizeable and minority are two totally different markers of scale. 25% of something is a sizeable chunk, but still the minority...
ekianjo 8y ago
>Their CEO revealed they have 1.8b logged in users That's what you get when you are logged in in gmail at the same time. It's not like people WANT to log in on Youtube, it's just a side effect of a google account login on some other service.

jadedhacker 8y ago

Youtube piggy backs on Google logins, so if you're signed into gmail, you'll be a logged in user.

cheeze 8y ago
But you can watch videos without being logged in. Which for me is a big benefit when I'm not using a device that I own. I don't have to worry about logging in at all.

retrogradeorbit 8y ago

Can confirm. I don't have a google account or a facebook account. I watch videos on youtube and it functions perfectly. However facebook is totally unusable without an account.

Lionsion 8y ago

> Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I think it's something a bit more general: Facebook is all about getting people to do, right now, what's good for Facebook, and it's willing to break things and get in your face to accomplish that. Youtube, and Google generally, seem to be much more OK with just providing a consistent, approachable service; and letting the users use it naturally. In the long term, that seems like the better strategy because it doesn't burn trust like it grows on trees.