YouTube is currently the second-most-used platform in the world, and it has introduced a number of beneficial updates recently, such as offering translation options in the comments section of a YouTube video and introducing a “Media Literacy” campaign that empowers users to prevent misinformation. However, a recent update that hides the dislike button count has not gone down well with the creative community.
An announcement on the official YouTube blog has revealed the company would be making dislike counts private across its platform. While the creators will be able to see dislike counts, users will not. YouTube’s justification for this is that it’s seeking to reduce harassment of content creators, irrespective of their reach. YouTube revealed that it conducted an experiment earlier this year where the dislike button was available to viewers, but the dislike count was hidden. Because the count was hidden, it found that viewers or commenters were less likely to leave a dislike and engage in targeted harassment, which tends to occur at a higher proportion on smaller channels.
The dislike button count has only been made private, meaning that the button itself has not gone away. Creators are still able to view their exact dislike counts in YouTube Studio. And viewers can currently still like or dislike a video to tailor content to their needs. However, many users are not happy with the changes. Considering that approximately 720,000 hours of content are uploaded to the site every day, the dislike button helps users to distinguish between what is worth watching and what is not. There are also content creators who purposely lure viewers with faulty thumbnails, inappropriate content, or false titles, and users could save several minutes of their time by taking a look at the like-dislike ratio.
In fact, YouTube’s own co-founder Jawed Karim has criticized the decision in the description of the first-ever YouTube video stating that “…there exists not a single YouTube Creator who thinks removing dislikes is a good idea — for YouTube or for creators”. Here’s hoping that the company will either retract or at least bring some balance to these changes.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.