Linus Fixes Click Bait Titles

[Imbellis]

 

Thank you, Linus, for listening (and compromising) with your community.

Regardless of my thoughts on content, being able to search through videos allows us to find a specific video through the plethora of content you guys have.

 

TLDW: They're keeping some of the click-bait titles (which I'm totally alright with), but also including product information and the type of video in order to improve researchability.

The majority of the stream was regarding the balance between clickability and information; for more clicks is better, but the community wanted more information too.

 

[r2724r16]

1 minute ago, Imbellis said:

TLDW so far: They're keeping some of the click-bait titles, but also including product information and the type of video in order to improve researchability.

Thanks @LinusTech

[wedgevic]

yasss

[Lord Mirdalan]

Finally!

 

[TempestCatto]

I have to say, not just with LTT but LOADS of other YouTubers, clickbait titles have caused me to not watch a video. Mainly because I couldn't tell what it would be about and I decided it was not worth my time checking out. Perhaps the days of "clickbait" may soon be behind us if more and more people start have this same mentality.

[TetraSky]

Good. I've only just now started watching the livestream, hopefully they start putting the actual product or feature they are talking about in the title alongside their usual titles.
 

Like the latest TechQuickie 

The Windows Feature You SHOULDN'T Ignore
 

It would've been helpful if "file extensions" was in the title. Like "File Extensions - The Windows Feature You SHOULDN'T Ignore"
Or better yet, title it as "File extensions, what are they?"( Or some other title like that)

Because that's TechQuickie, a channel for people to look up answers to a question they may have about tech, quickly.

 

Left as is, it's not helpful to those of us who are looking for something quickly.

 

Edit : Looks like they made good on their promise. The title of that TechQuickie now includes File Extensions.

[lewdicrous]

Really wish this will translate to techquickie as well 

[JoostinOnline]

I'll subscribe again if they actually hold up to this. I hated unsubbing, but it became clear that viewership loyalty was being used against us. I was also sick of embarrassing myself by regularly pulling up the wrong video to show people.

 

What's funny is that I didn't watch this live. I saw the title, got excited, but then was convinced it was just them being sarcastic. Six months of them having a "f*ck you" attitude made me assume they were beyond seeing their flaws.

[TetraSky]

5 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

What's funny is that I didn't watch this live. I saw the title, got excited, but then was convinced it was just them being sarcastic. Six months of them having a "f*ck you" attitude made me assume they were beyond seeing their flaws.

It didn't sound sarcastic to me.
They themselves had issues actually finding content they had made before, exactly because of their terrible naming scheme. This made them realize there was an issue.

 

While not every titles will be fixed, we can hope to maybe have a dash +product name, in the title from now on in most videos instead of a pure clickbait/opinion that doesn't tell us anything.

[J-Sharpie]

I think this is something good to do when you are thinking about purchasing or upgrading from something really old to moderately old or closer to new.

Or just information about a specific feature and maybe about a specific product.

 

Here are points on what we should expect to make searching for a video easier and getting the idea that is the video you are looking for.

You can have a clicky name

Disclaimer this is what I can think of as I'm typing

• Product Reviews/Showcase - At least have the Manufacture and the name of the product/product code with the word Review or Showcase towards the end of the title.
  This is important because when you are shopping around Amazon, Newegg, etc. I highlight the product name/product code and paste it on YouTube search. 
  If the video title and/or thumbnail doesn't have the name of the product or it's blatantly obvious what it is anywhere other than deep into the description that doesn't show in the search results, you may end up selecting the video is reviewing a different product. 
  Seeing the title "Best gaming monitor" or "Best 144 HZ HDR monitor" (hypothetical titles) it may go. "That's great that it is but what product is that about? Is it about the product I was looking for?"
  Using Screenshot because links can be dynamic when they update the name of the title. This is an example of a search result.
  
  More often then not, we can see this being a Super-Ultrawide monitor but is it a showcase, review, or impressions? If it is, Who was the brand and what is the product name? It's not easily found in the description from a search result perspective. The description just shows their sponsor of the video that has nothing to do with the video itself since that's on top of the description info. That's fine if that's an agreement from your sponsor which is why we need something on the Video title. 
  In this case, it's two different brands and products. What do you think would be the best way to help people searching for information?
  
  Even if the product is bad, we need to know what the product is because we can go look at a product we will not know what the video entails as what it is reviewing.
   
• Vlog Videos: Keep it as it is, because it's nothing like an educational or informative type of content and more of a fun content.
• Experimental Videos: As long as the title explains what you're doing, that's fine and doesn't have anything to do with a specific product. However there are times where it's not so clear in the title and the thumbnail may have some indicator but this can slowly drift towards the direction of not understanding what the video may actually be about.
  
  • The left video clearly says what this is doing
  • The video on the right the Title itself doesn't say anything even though it shows three super-ultrawide monitors used for gaming, however because the thumbnail is pretty photoshopped. To even a general video searcher, this can get perceived as a "oh another Triple monitor gaming video" or " oh another Triple ultrawide gaming video" and not a "Triple super-ultrawide gaming video"
     
• Product Features: Mostly on Techquickie, I feel like it's slowly moving away from what the video is actually about
  
  • This title itself isn't clear at all. The thumbnail may give you some idea but we're not exactly sure.
    What you can do about it is you can keep the clicky title but towards the end of the title you can add what you used to do by saying thing like "File Extensions Explained"
• 
• Here is another one, There's three videos shown and the middle one is the only one that you have no idea what it could possibly be about. The thumbnail itself also doesn't really give you an idea what it is even about. The ones next to it before and after that video was released, it's very clear what the video is about just by the title itself.
  
• To even some of the more kinda techie enthusiast can understand that this is possibly talking about SSD speed and the marketing behind it. 
• To the general viewer who may want information, just having the title "The Marketing Is a LIE" with a what appears to be a computer component with the word Speed on it with some comet flare effect added to it. May not know what this video is going to be talking about.
• The one on the right about the Blackberry's downfall is pretty clear that it's about the Blackberry's downfall.
• The one of the left can be a little more descriptive in the title. The Dumbest thing about USB has a potential to be extremely broad and the video is about USB3 name change you can possibly find a more attractive shorter title than what I can offer but here's the foundation on what I can provide
  • [RANT] The DUMBEST Thing About USB3 | Marketing change explained
  • [RANT] The DUMBEST Thing About USB3 | Name change explained

I think there's a lesson to be learned (I surely learned something just by typing this) when the channel is about helping consumers make product buying decisions, informing about specific things, or experiments done. Because I don't think the channel is strictly for entertainment purpose only.

Channel Super Fun can have strictly clicky titles though since it's all for fun.

[JoostinOnline]

31 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

It didn't sound sarcastic to me.

Well watching it made that clear. However, I only saw the Twitch title (obviously not subbed on YouTube anymore) and I thought it was a sarcastic WAN Show title. Because they haven't had much to talk about, their recent titles have been jokes.

[2FA]

I once got LTT to change the title of their Samsung S8 review (to include the product name) because I posted a screenshot showing it didn't even show up in S8 review search results. I was baffled that they didn't realize it then.

[JoostinOnline]

It's also ironic how many of those videos I would have watched if they'd been given descriptive titles instead of "clicky" titles (as Linus calls them). An example is the "Does size really matter" video. I had no idea what that was about. All I saw was the garbage title and didn't want to contribute to it. Now I know it's about tubing. Hell yeah I'm gonna watch that!

[JustWantTech]

Am I the only one that's fine with clickbaits?

 

@LinusTechI think you should do "Clickbait title -Proper title" for future videos for all channels.

 

Example: The Windows Feature You shouldn't ignore - File Extension.

 

This way, Youtube algorithm can still sent your videos to home feed (Which I guess the reason you resort to use clickbait titles) while make it searchable by relevant words.

[danomicar]

Why not change the title of the video a week or so after it comes out? Makes more sense from a search-ability standpoint. 

[jiyeon]

I still remember the "Is AMD For Poor People?" title (and humorously was put on show on @Tristerin which I love) that sparked a lot of outrage and controversery here and also in the YouTube comments, it was equal parts entertaining to see the backlash a simple title can bring and also a feeling of distrust towards the channel itself.

[Tristerin]

1 minute ago, seoz said:

I still remember the "Is AMD For Poor People?" title (and humorously was put on show on @Tristerin which I love) that sparked a lot of outrage and controversery here and also in the YouTube comments, it was equal parts entertaining to see the backlash a simple title can bring and also a feeling of distrust towards the channel itself.

 

 

Never forget

 

 

 

 

 

 

[danomicar]

12 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

unless it automated, it's one extra thing to keep track of every week ._. (or every day if they're going per-video than per-week)

Seems like a relatively minor to thing to automate or keep track of. I would be surprised if they did not use some sort of project tracking software.

 

Even free options like Smartsheet would allow for reminders to be set for x days after a video is released.

[Wolf in the City]

I just find it funny that he made a video about renaming his clickbait titles that either were getting hits or weren't getting hit because of the clickbait titles.

All this is doing is highlighting old content and driving people back to watching them. Its win win for Linus he can do a sponsor video without any real content,

gets people who didn't watch his clickbait to watch it now, has the community happy as it appears that he is doing something for us (he may feel that he is).

I didn't join the forum to write this post i actually joined to ask that Linus go back to what made the show great in the first place , unboxings , build challengers, Scrapyard wars, Linus dropping stuff. But i think that he made this video highlights my point of where the show has gone.

Wolf Out. 

[MrFixitBlankFace]

So the title “We’re finally getting rid of clickbait titles” was pretty clicky and baity

[JoostinOnline]

19 hours ago, danomicar said:

Why not change the title of the video a week or so after it comes out? Makes more sense from a search-ability standpoint. 

I proposed that very thing a few months ago. The LMG staff rejected it (I don't think a reason was ever given, but it's been awhile), which is what lead to me and a few other people unsubscribing.

[acondie13]

This is the first time I've ever posted on this forum but I just had to sign up to say thanks @LinusTech. As someone that used to watch about every video, I have skipped the majority of the last 6 months of LTT videos because not knowing the subject of the video turned me off even being interested. This is a good compromise and I appreciate it.

[Soppro]

23 hours ago, JustWantTech said:

Am I the only one that's fine with clickbaits?

 

@LinusTechI think you should do "Clickbait title -Proper title" for future videos for all channels.

 

Example: The Windows Feature You shouldn't ignore - File Extension.

 

This way, Youtube algorithm can still sent your videos to home feed (Which I guess the reason you resort to use clickbait titles) while make it searchable by relevant words.

I think their logic was that if they excluded the 'proper title', people would actually click on the video to find out what it was about. And quite frankly, it works. Most of the time, the thumbnails told you what it was generally going to be about anyway. 

[imreloadin]

On 4/19/2019 at 6:56 PM, TetraSky said:

They themselves had issues actually finding content they had made before, exactly because of their terrible naming scheme. This made them realize there was an issue.

I loved how they doubled down and told everyone that said they were having these issues that it wasn't a problem...wouldn't want to take anyone else's word for it now would they...

[Dazza477]

When Linus said he would listen to the community and stop the ridiculous video titles for LMG, does Techlinked not count?

 

One has just been uploaded now saying 'Folding Phones are CANCELLED', when actually, Samsung is just postponing a Galaxy Fold event. 

 

Even the thumbnail shows a picture of a folding phone with a cross through it, and it's not even the phone that's being cancelled. That's completely misleading.