RIP Center Frame Thumbnails
According to YouTube’s blog post this morning, thumbnail cheating is now officially a thing of the past. I’d noticed a few months ago that the center thumbnail image wasn’t working consistently on my latest videos, and others had noticed this as well. Nalts even blogged about my tip.
As of today, thumbnail options (still only three) will be chosen algorithmically, meaning it will be impossible for video creators to insert still images into their videos meant to be used as the thumbnail.
Like all other drastic changes to the site that no one wants, I hope YouTube listens to the community and changes its mind.
YouTube states the change is to deter cheaters and gaming of the system. But not all thumbnail placements were meant to game the system. Last December, the vlogbrothers, along with numerous other YouTubers, worked together to bring awareness of over 200 different charities to YouTube viewers by “taking over” the Most Discussed lists on YouTube, using a thumbnail I created.
Guess we’ll have to rethink our plans for this year’s Project for Awesome.
My deepest sympathies to sxephil and hotforwords…
If my current subscription box is any indication, the new process is working perfectly. [/sarcasm]
PS. VenetianPrincess and CharlesTrippy made some great points in the comment section of YouTube’s blog post about this, please head over there and voice your opinion on this matter. If video makers can’t choose their thumbnails, they won’t be able to brand their videos, thus losing out on views, and, ultimately, losing money for YouTube.
29 Responses to “RIP Center Frame Thumbnails”
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December 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Alan
I was wondering about the Project of Awesome would be here again for this year. Thats great if it happens.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
Oh yeah looks like it is working.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am
fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…. that is all…
oh, fuck.
charles
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Oh YouTube, not again.
Le sigh
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Actually, one of the first things I thought of was the Project for Awesome, since it’s pretty close, and I doubt they will change anything by then.
I saw a comment on the blog from VenetianPrincess that I think was very apt - basically saying that the thumbnail is like a CD or DVD cover, and that to take the control away from partners especially is a big mistake, because they have lost the power to brand their videos and attract people to the content which, um, makes money for YouTube.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 am
I’m sure that we’ll be able to find a way around it and still do the Project of Awesome…it may not be as simple as it was before, but it may still work out. Right?
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
Man i am getting tired of youtube messing up this crap. Now what are we going to do this Dec 17?! stupid youtube with all these unwanted updates….
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 am
One of these days, they’ll give us a change that we ASK for…
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
We can always try to deal with the center shots the same way sxephil did with his obama winning video, and keep an image going for a bit and do voice over of it.
But ironically he was talking about homosexual animals as he did it, with a picture of obama in front of it all. He did apologize but it was hilarious
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
FzngWizbee - That would require someone cracking the algorithm before then, and as it doesn’t even seem to be working at all right now that may prove difficult.
I don’t think this is an unwanted update. I think they are honestly trying to address the issue of gamed thumbnails with sexually suggestive content. This raises a couple of big questions right off the bat.
Is it really better to try and have technology monitor something that may be better served by having human eyes looking at it?
What about legitimate uses of framing a thumbnail? I know that some creators have gotten very good at making sure their center shot is what they want it to be, and a lot of the time it doesn’t even disrupt the flow of the video. This isn’t necessarily something that is related to sexually suggestive thumbnails, their thumbnails very often relate to content in the videos which are not sexual at all, and this is now affected. Should we just chalk this up to collateral damage?
Expanded thumbnail selection is not an option here as it would seem their goal is to stop a certain kind of cheater.
Like I said on their blog, it feels like they have tried to deal with an issue but not taken anything else in to account except for the one issue they are trying to correct.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I’m not sure if this is a way so YouTube doesn’t have to pay attention to the videos going around.
The Project for Awesome brought so much attention to something go. Charities were remembered in epic proportions. I’m not sure what we would do at this point.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
honestly, this theory makes no sense.
like venetian princess said on twitter, the thumbnail for our videos are the cover art for musicians; without that, people might not buy/look! the cooler/funnier the thumbnail, the more views that video gets. and, if the person’s a partner, the more money in youtube’s pocket.
i can understand why they don’t like the thumbnail cheaters but still, if its getting views, that’s not “cheating”, its intelligence on how to get views on youtube.
big mistake on youtubes part. big mistake…
-shane
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Gosh, why does youtube keep doing these updates?! Why don’t they fix the problems instead of add more things. I would like the honors to be fixed or when a video gets slammed with views and freezes around 218 views for a while. tisk tisk…youtube…
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Well, this effectively sucks. Once I found the B2.0 thumbnail calculator thing, I started using it mainly so I don’t look high or like a crazy person or have my eyes closed in my center shot. The first half of all the videos I’ve made have a crappy center shot with me looking like an idiot because I didn’t know to edit them around that center frame. What about people who use the center framing for that? That doesn’t seem fair that they would take this away from us. Jeez.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
In the words of Happy Gilmore, “I know what you’re trying to do, and I don’t like it.”
I think yt has the idea that they can solve the problem of thumbnail cheats or misleading frames, but also ensure that through an entire video the message or brand stays the same.
However, I think there’s a lot more wrong with that yt is doing than right. Venetian’s point is absolutely right, and I wonder what that will mean for the other content creators out there.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
whenever youtube add NEW features, it causes more problems on the site.
The subscriptions is a good example.
for a while, the new videos in the subscriptions did NOT disappear after we watch them.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I’m subscribed to a lot of channels, so videos only appear in my subscription box for an hour or less. If I don’t get the pictures within the first half hour of the video going up, I might not see who made the video, or if someone is in it that I like.
This is also frustrating since I wanted to have a shot of someone other than myself in a collab video I’m working on.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Oh, Youtube. You try to make yourself better, yet you ruin everything for the vloggers. They must be thinking of the other videos, but honestly.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I was wondering why the Lib Dem’s videos were showing up as funny. It takes the colour out of the page layouts, for a start (I’m shamefully obsessed with layouts and page aesthetics…don’t ask) as well as disengaging the user. I would feel more compelled to watch videos if I could see a snipshot of what was going on. Even if it was just a picture.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
We need a vlogger YouTube video petition…
They’re adding WAY too many unneeded features. I posted a video with “om nom nom” in the description a,d they added a “description translator” that translates it to “om name name”.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
That explains why all of my subscriptions have been blank too. It takes hours, sometimes a whole day, for it to load an image. Smart, YouTube, smart!
Got to love all these little changes. Sigh. What does it MATTER if someone can put their own thumbnail!?
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Websites updating themselves without the option to revert to the original is almost always a mistake. Facebook did it and most people hate it. YouTube continues to do it again and again and it’s almost never received well. They’re not the smartest, are they?
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
It sucks big time, and the thing already failed one of my last videos had the thumbnail with a picture of my crotch
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Damn, this sucks. The thumbnail ‘trick’ has always been a big part of YouTube, and now they are making all these changes to the traditional YouTube, soon enough it will be a completely different site.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Oh, and I pre-ordered your book on Friday … shouldn’t I have gotten it by now?
December 7th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I think you’re right in saying they’re decreasing the videos’ views by doing this and i think they’re also doing this by putting a time thing on the video thumbnail. People might see that a video is a few minutes and go “can’t be bothered to watch that” and move on.
December 8th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
[...] A few days ago YouTube users were up in arms over some of YouTube’s changes posted about in their blog. I wrote about that here. [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
The Big Partners complained about the thumbnails and YT gave in, so if they could start complaining about the censorship, that would be awesome.
I might as well be asking them to freeze Hell over.;)
December 31st, 2008 at 5:57 pm
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