YouTube is finally getting rid of the 301+ placeholder that confused many YouTube creators about why their video views were stuck at 301 and counting.
Back in YouTube's early days, the 301+ placeholder was a means for it to tell video creators that YouTube was currently verifying the number of real views a video had. That way, users were discouraged from using spam bots to drive up the number of their video views and trick real people into thinking that many other people are watching those videos.
The verification process, which took YouTube several hours to complete, kicked in right after a video reached 301 views, prompting YouTube to put 301+ below the video while it goes on to make sure bots are not artificially inflating a video's views. Once YouTube is sure that those views were made by real people, it takes away the placeholder and puts in the real number of views.
Now that the Google-owned video sharing network has wider access to better technology, YouTube is doing away with the 301+ placeholder. Instead, video views that YouTube can tell come from real people will be counted in real-time, while questionable views that could be coming from spam bots will still be subject to the hours-long verification process.
We're saying goodbye to 301 and hello to more up-to-date video views. pic.twitter.com/33OQuOvxcs
— YouTube Creators (@YTCreators) August 5, 2015
YouTube is also upping its standards on what counts as a real view and will only count views from users it knows actually watched the video or some of it. For instance, people who click on a video and close it after a few seconds do not count as views, so there is no sense for YouTube creators to place misleading thumbnails and descriptions to trick users into opening their videos.
While most average YouTube users will not likely notice the change, YouTube creators will find it a bit easier to market their videos, since a potentially viral video that says it has attracted only 301+ viewers might not entice other people to watch the video as well.
However, the biggest impact of this will be felt by none other than YouTube itself, which, as YouTube Analytics Product Manager Ted Hamilton tells (video) Numberphile, the video platform treats views like it treats currency.
"We think of views as a currency, and therefore, we have to make a significant effort to eliminate counterfeit views," Hamilton says.
On YouTube, the videos that get the most number of views get promoted to the front page as featured videos, which further makes it easier for video creators to gain even more views and go viral. However, a few creators have found in the past that they could try and trick YouTube into thinking they are getting a lot of views. Alas, for the perpetual spammers, the era of spam bots on YouTube is now over.
Photo: Janet Galore | Flickr
