YouTube Ranking

February 5, 2007 5:38 PM

So just how does YouTube rank their "top" and "most" videos? Do they have human editors?

I found this intersting little video on YouTube and have been watching it grow as a meme all day yesterday and then kind of explode today. Technorati listed it as the WTF subject for most of the day, and still lists it as the most popular video. But YouTube, where it's hosted doesn't seem to know it exists. In spite of watching it go from a couple of thousand views to almost 40K in less than 48 hours, it doesn't show up on any of their most or top pages. It statistically surpasses most of the other contenders in their Most Viewed, Top Rated, Most Discussed, Top Favorites, and most linked categories but it's not there. Why?

posted by Toekneesan to computers & internet (5 comments total)

It statistically surpasses most of the other contenders in their Most Viewed, Top Rated, Most Discussed, Top Favorites, and most linked categories but it's not there.

How do you figure? You must be looking at the "Today" category, which only lists stuff posted in the last day. But if you switch to "This Week" category, which is where this video would be competing since it was posted five days ago, you'll see videos that have hundreds of thousands of views. The lowest view count on the first page of "This Week" by most viewed is 218,732, so the web 2.0 thing isn't even close to getting listed there.
posted by Rhomboid at 6:51 PM on February 5, 2007

"YouTube's members rate videos they like, and we review highly-rated and recent videos for consideration in the "Featured Videos" section of the home page and the featured videos on the "Categories" page. In addition, our programming team takes suggestions from members at [e-mail] and scans the site for videos of interest."

From the You Tube Help Center. Sounds like it needs to be reviewed first.
posted by Emo Squid at 7:36 PM on February 5, 2007

YouTube staff also monitor external sites and communities where YouTube videos are posted to find good stuff.
posted by Dag Maggot at 10:00 PM on February 5, 2007

Rhomboid: "You must be looking at the "Today" category, which only lists stuff posted in the last day. But if you switch to "This Week" category, which is where this video would be competing since it was posted five days ago..."

Dear god, you're right. That's terrible. It's not "most viewed in the last day", it's "most viewed, and uploaded in the last day".
posted by Plutor at 5:08 AM on February 6, 2007

That video just made me cry. I must be PMSing.
posted by serazin at 9:37 AM on February 6, 2007