YouTube is planning to put an end to the suggested video links that suddenly pop up on the user’s screen while in the middle of watching a video on the site, a recent report indicates. Beginning on December 14, the Google-owned video sharing site will no longer allow YouTube creators to show links to promotional clips, live streams and other video materials in mid clip because the service concluded that not too many people find the destination videos interesting, with some of those clips reportedly being inactive live streams.
Instead of the mid-clip suggested video links, YouTube will concentrate its focus on end screen video links and cards, as the streaming platform deems this strategy more useful and persuasive to users. Furthermore, links that appear at the end of a video is less intrusive than pop-ups that come out in the middle of a clip, thus minimizing the level of annoyance for many YouTube viewers. These changes apply only to links that redirect to another YouTube video. In case users want to include third-party links in a clip, YouTube said this can be done by using the space provided in the video descriptions, channel pages, or channel art, the report says. This prevents YouTube creators from trying to promote another video and displaying links to web pages beyond the realm of YouTube through in-video notifications.
YouTube Help forum manager, Jordan E., noted in a post on the forum that the ability to show mid-clip links to playlists, videos and live streams was introduced a few years ago through an interactive bar, which was later followed by cards and end screens that aim to help creators drive traffic to certain videos. The end screen feature in particular was launched in October last year with the goal of letting creators insert large thumbnails after their videos in a bid to get viewers to watch more videos. The Cards feature was launched in March 2015 as a replacement to annotations inside of videos to help content creators include more information and useful engagement in the video. With the removal of suggested video links in mid clip, it remains to be seen how this will affect the viewership of YouTube creators.