YouTube is the largest video platform in the world, the best place to find videos on any possible topic; The problem is that some are too long and last longer than they should, a problem caused by the company itself.
Seasoned YouTube users probably remember the days when all YouTube videos were 10 minutes long; Indeed, it was the ideal duration to show more ads and increase the number of hours watched, a very important fact in determining the success of a YouTuber.
YouTube’s algorithms therefore prioritized 10-minute videos over shorter videos in search and on the homepage; and therefore, the creators little by little they increased the length of their videos. These days, it’s common to find videos that are over an hour long, and many successful videos are over three hours long.
The solution to long videos
Now YouTube finds itself in the position of having to solve a problem of its own: people are tired of long videos and prefer short videos like those on TikTok. It is for this reason that in recent months it has experimented with the use of artificial intelligence to analyze videos and display their informationwithout the user having to see them in their entirety.
A few months ago, YouTube launched a feature that displayed a full summary of the video, as well as a summary of user comments; This worked in both conventional videos and live broadcasts.
Now YouTube has confirmed the launch of a new feature called ‘Jump forward’which is able to automatically take us to the most interesting parts of the video.
Normally, when we double-click on the screen while watching a YouTube video, the application jumps to the next 10 seconds. With the new function, when you make the same gesture the application this will take us to the next interesting part of the video.
YouTube uses machine learning to detect points of interest videos, which are marked invisibly to the user; A video can have several points of interest. When the user double-taps the screen, playback automatically starts from the next point of interest.
As it is necessary to analyze the content, YouTube warns that the function will only be available in certain videos, without specifying which ones. What has been clarified is that this function is exclusive to YouTube Premium users, as a new experimental function; Additionally, US users are currently the first to be able to use this feature.
