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YouTube.app
- jonaphin 14y agoAs you noted duly, there will be a Youtube app for iOS. You also noted the move might bring ads and other unwanted noise. It will certainly. Someone has to pay for the service. Now, what will be interested to see is how many people switch to Android because of it. My guess, close to 0. Of all the videos I watch online from major sources, I have to give it to Google, their ads are the least annoying (possibility to minimize them or quit the video ads after 5 seconds).
- k-mcgrady 14y agoEven if Google didn't bring another YouTube app to iOS I personally wouldn't mind. Their mobile web experience is pretty good. If it was a choice between an app with pre-roll ads and the mobile website I'd just access it through Safari.
- julien_p 14y agoIMO directly viewing the videos in safari and not having YouTube.app hijack the links actually makes for a better experience overall.
- objclxt 14y agoAlthough I don't think you could watch any videos with ads through the YouTube app, because YouTube are only able to serve ads through the Flash player, not the plain H.264 feeds.
- tonfa 14y agoI thought the android app had video ads now. http://googlemobileads.blogspot.nl/2012/08/trueview-video-ads-now-on-mobile-devices.html http://googlemobileads.blogspot.nl/2012/08/trueview-video-ad...
- lwm 14y agocant read it, font color is a killer
- capo 14y agoYouTube.apk has ads, and all the sharing options and comments, etc. Yet it still manages to be mostly about the video, and is superior by far to it's current iOS counterpart; so I wouldn't worry about it.
- b0jangles 14y agoI find it interesting that my 5 year old son prefers the YouTube app on my iPhone to the one on my Galaxy Tab, even though the screen is obviously smaller on the iPhone. I don't really know why. He seems to find it easier to navigate.
- lucian1900 14y agoLight grey on white? Really?!
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoTheir computer must have horribly set monitor or gamma settings...
- rhizome 14y agoEh, if you tweak and stare at something for long enough, you can think anything looks good.
- pydave 14y agoAgreed. I wonder if webmasters can get stats on how often readers use Readability or the like to actually consume their content... To the author: http://contrastrebellion.com http://contrastrebellion.com
- hadem 14y agoYou realize Hacker News is one of their examples of websites with poor contrast?
- veeti 14y agoSo? Hacker News is probably one of the worst designed websites I have ever used both from an usability and aesthetic perspective. It has nothing to do with the fact that this blog post is nearly unreadable.
- lucian1900 14y agoHN is readable to some extent. Not comfortable or pleasant, but ok. That blog is just totally unreadable.
- DanBC 14y agoThe greyed text of HN is used as an example. I agree - the grey text is hard to read. Mostly that's by design; down voted comments are supposed to be hard to read. But when someone starts a thread with a comment, instead of an external link, they grey text is weird and hard to read. The normal text of HN is fine for contrast.
- cwhitaker01 14y agoYtube.app (http://ytubeapp.com/ http://ytubeapp.com/) is currently in the works. Probably a good time for it's release.
- muratmutlu 14y agoLooks really good, signed up. Thanks for sharing
- fceccon 14y agoYour app looks good, on Twitter you say it will be free, please don't. I prefer paying €3-€4 now and have it stick around than having it for free and abandoned in a year.
- notatoad 14y agoYouTube is not a charity dedicated to children's entertainment. They are a division of a publicly traded company with a legal responsibility to make money. If they want to add G+ sharing and ads in order to remain a viable business, that is their prerogative. Maybe somebody else will make the app you want, with nothing but an endless selection of free content. Maybe everybody will love it. And then, it'll go broke or get acquired and we'll have to see a repeat of all the "don't be a free user" rants that show up on hacker news every time a beloved company wih no business model either dies or tries to start supporting itself.
- officemonkey 14y agoCustomers are not responsible for keeping companies in business. They're also allowed to gripe about businesses who fail to accomodate their needs, especially when companies use the "first one is free" model to gain users and then suckify their product to make money (a process I dub "zyngafication".) OP seeks a model which already exists. The PBSkids.app is extremely kid friendly, albeit with limited content. My Netflix queue is also loaded up with kid-friendly content with zero ads. Actually, an ad-free kidzone would be a good move for youtube: parents love trusted brands, and brand loyalty starts young (want proof? What toothpaste was in your bathroom when you were a child? What laundry soap? What brand of cola? I'll bet that one of those three brands are in your house right now.)
- mbell 14y agoWhat makes you think YouTube's users are its customers? They aren't, they are the product.
- officemonkey 14y agoEven more reason to eschew YouTube for another service. If I'm being sold, I'd rather not come so cheap.
- notatoad 14y agoSure, customers are allowed to gripe, I'm not trying to tell the OP he isn't allowed to gripe, just that his gripes are not very realistic.
- untog 14y agoTL;DR: I don't like the idea of having to pay for watching video, and am using the example of a small child to engender sympathy. The simple fact of the matter is that running YouTube costs money, and there's nothing wrong with making users pay for that in the form of ads. You don't want your sister to have to deal with that? Totally understandable. Maybe there should be some kind of kid-friendly video network that only shows appropriate videos (and appropriate comments)? I imagine a lot of parents would pay a monthly fee for access to that, and bypass advertising entirely. As I often think when I read posts like this on Hacker News: you've just identified a market and a window of opportunity. Stop complaining and get working.
- Xyzodiac 14y agoSeriously, Youtube is a business and has to generate revenue somehow. The air of entitlement stinks.
- iamwil 14y agoIt's not a sense of entitlement he's expressing. It's being an advocate of users. Ads are by definition someone asking the world, "who wants what we can provide?" The value is often for the person asking, rather than the person listening. Most of the time, ads rarely match up the two parties well, and as a result, the company tries its damn hardest to put askers everywhere listeners are listening. The result making for a sub-par user experience. Often times in a company's search for revenue, it forgets about the end-user, and justify unpleasant user experiences with "Well, we gotta make money somehow." One can say, "well, if you don't like it, then leave." When users have a first chance to do so, they will, and then who will you advertise to? The exception are ads in search, where the person asking (advertiser) is really well matched with the person listening (searcher). Google used restraint when it came to ads. It could have completely blasted the end user with flashy banner ads which were typical when it first started. However, it looked out for basic user value and user experience first. It is possible to serve ads, and have a good user experience. The OP never was against paying for a simplified YouTube. It's not against YouTube making money. But it is against losing sight of the basic value of watching videos. It's like if you once wrote control tower software, and added bells and whistles to the point where you're not able to land planes anymore. Once again, it's advocate for the basic value for the end user. Sometimes, when adding all the new-fangled stuff, we might lose sight of the basic value. That's what he's getting at.
- donniezazen 14y agofocused on sharing to Google+, and advertising, and all the unnecessary crap Too much presumptuousness. Android Youtube app with Google+, advertising and unnecessary crap is very well designed. Live video streams etc. are quite useful.
- thrownaway2424 14y agoBingo. The YouTube app on iOS is a pale shadow of the one on Android. Often my 3-year-old daughter has to come running for my help because the iOS YouTube has inexplicably decided to not do anything. Often this takes the form of multiple nonsensical pop-up alerts about access to the video being denied or other nonsense. If you want to know what YouTube by Google will look like on the iPad, you need only pick up a Nexus 7 and look at it.
- patrickaljord 14y agoCame here to say just that, also their mobile website is quite amazing too. Best mobile experience I've had so far. Didn't notice any ads.
- prophetjohn 14y agoIf your sister can ignore the comments and ratings just fine, I'm optimistic of her ability to ignore ads and social integration as well.
- brandoncapecci 14y agoMy thoughts exactly... comments and ratings are just social feedback anyway. Moreover, YouTube ads are stuff your sister might even like: Katy Perry and iCarly. Hipsters are the ones who are unable to bear those 20 seconds, not little girls.
- mladenkovacevic 14y agoI was going to write exactly this but thought I'd scan the thread to see if somebody had a similar thought. I'm glad I wasn't alone. And if at some point she does sees a Tickle-me-Elmo ad that makes her go nag her parents to buy her a Tickle-me-Elmo doll is that the end of the world? It's always astounded me that in America (I am just assuming that the blog author is American) you have people who feel that non-essential services (like internet video distribution or email) should be ubiquitously free and available but at the same time you have people that feel health-care for everyone should not be a basic human right.
- spullara 14y agoMy 2 yr old can navigate the app very well. I doubt it will be as easy once it is updated. I'll likely just keep ios 5 around until he gets old enough to use the real site.
- petercooper 14y agoThis is exactly what I thought when I heard the news about the YouTube app too, with respect to my own daughter. But then I realized I never upgrade iOS devices and just buy new ones, so she can milk out our existing iPads for at least a few years yet.. unless they'll totally disable access from the old YouTube app(?)
- DanBC 14y agoI'm surprised that people have zeroed in on the tiny mention of ads in the blog post. It's mostly a minor point, and isn't really about not wanting to pay. Let's make the quote generic: > And now, presumably, $COMPANY will come out with its own version of a $SERVICE app for $PLATFORM focused on sharing to $SOCIALPLATFORM, and advertising, and all the unnecessary crap that my sister doesn’t really want. She’s going to have to transition from something easy, and useful, and fun, to something that’s most likely subpar and not as good as an older version. This is a valid complaint, and it happens to a lot of stuff from a lot of different providers. But, if we're talking about adverts: I'd consider subscribing and removing ads, but that's not an option that Youtube offers. Because I like the content I watch, and wish to support the creators, I watch the ads. And often they're lousy. There's no option to tell Youtube to stop showing me this ad that I have zero interest in. (I AM NEVER EVER GOING TO BUY ANYTHING FROM FUCKING JACAMO) I might even buy something from an advert if it was relevant to me. I'm one of the most ad-tolerant people I know, and if Youtube is getting it wrong for me then they're failing hard. Also, Youtube keep showing me ads that probably are non-compliant with advertising codes in the UK. That's a problem.
- brigade 14y agoEven if it was mainly about ads I do enjoy the mentality that responds to people saying "these ads are rather annoying" with "too bad, suck it up and check your entitlement"
- codeka 14y ago> And now, presumably, $COMPANY will come out with its own version of a $SERVICE app for $PLATFORM focused on sharing to $SOCIALPLATFORM, and advertising, and all the unnecessary crap that my sister doesn’t really want. That's a bit of a straw man, though. We don't even know what they'll come out yet, but we're just assuming it'll be much worse? I've only used the Android app and I really don't see what's wrong with it - why would it be worse than the Android app?
- esolyt 14y agoThis is an interesting prejudice. I don't know what makes the author think Google's app will offer poor experience. YouTube app for Android is great. I'm sure Google will try to create a great experience for iOS as well.
- paul9290 14y agoApple is losing points with me due to... - Youtube app removal - New iMaps when you click a map link on a website your built in map app no longer loads showing you the address you seek. Rather, it now takes you to a dead end Google Map in your browser. - The iPhone 5 if the new designs seen throughout the blogosphere are true then MEH. The S3's design is slick; size of a credit card. - Wielding their patent power to try & kill the competition, which could possibly back fire on them. I have owned various iPhone models over the past four years. Though I'm seriously considering a different manufacturer - hopefully one that provides the same level of customer service Apple does.
- smartkids 14y agoTeach her to turn off Javascript. Voila. No more ads. (Or at least a drastically reduced number of them.) Just as Google is entitled to show ads, the user is entitled to disable Javascript. It's a fair trade. And as for inserting the ads into the video, as Zach says, she'll just figure out how to skip them.
- shanselman 14y agoI don't let my kids on YouTube, it's too dangerous. I do let them use an app called Zoodles that is "kid safe YouTube." It is just curated videos and they send you a list of what they watch.
- lpai 14y agoMobile technologies are shaping a new generation - a generation with access to a cloud of "constant" content. At "Q-it" we want to put parents in the drivers seat to chart the map of their child's digital viewing journey. Check us out at http://www.qitvideo.com http://www.qitvideo.com and watch the video to learn more. Sign up and we'll let you know when "Q-it" is ready!