YouTube What's happening to annotations?

Will you miss the annotations?

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 50.0%
  • No

    Votes: 7 50.0%

  • Total voters
    14
U

User.123120

Guest
Hello, Freedom Family!

Yes, you've heard correctly Youtube has announced in a recent blog post that they will be removing the Annotations Editor so that means after May 2nd, they will be removing the feature! But how will bad lyric videos correct themselves?

Well, the good news is that all our existing annotations will continue to show but only on desktop computers! The only time you will be allowed to use the Annotations Editor will be to remove some of you existing ones.

But why? Because End Screens and Cards are better and easier to use according to Youtube and quite rightly so, youtube reported that since the release of End Screens and Cards the use of annotations have dropped by a massive 70% so it makes sense to scrap the idea and put more time and support into something that's making a better impact like end screens and cards, also in the blog post that
Youtube shared there were a few reasons regarding this decision which goes as the following;
  • End Screens and Cards work on mobile: Annotations Editor launched in 2008 before the world went mobile. With 60 percent of Youtube's watchtime now on mobile, why go through the work of creating annotations that won’t even reach the majority of your audience? End Screens and Cards work on mobile and desktop, giving you more bang for your buck.
  • End Screens and Cards are more engaging for your viewers: End Screens and Cards generate seven times more clicks across YouTube than annotations. In fact, viewers generally don’t love annotations, and on average they close 12 annotations before they click on one of them. And more and more viewers turn off annotations altogether.
  • End Screens are easier to create: You told us that adding annotations at the end of your videos is hard. With End Screens that process is now much quicker and easier -- in fact, up to ten times quicker. You can now import End Screens from other videos or use dynamic overlays to save yourself, even more, time.
Types-of-YouTube-Annotations.jpg

We saw this coming!
Evidently, annotations were made to become end screen and cards. To quote an article written 2 years ago when Youtube released Annotations.
"Though replacing annotations is the eventual goal, that’s not happening yet – cards can’t quite do everything annotations can. You can’t choose their size or exactly where to put them, for instance (they all show up on the right edge), they’re limited to five per video and you can’t set your own colors." You can find the full article here.

So what do you guys and gals think, do you like the decision? Let us know!
-Itsjustjord
 
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Jonathan

"You don't know me...but you will"
Freedom! Member
Feb 1, 2016
819
383
26
UK
jonathan.carter.games
YouTube
I agree with where Youtube is going here, End screen cards are much better and save a lot of time as they can be placed in under a minute to have latest videos, channel links and social links if you have a website domain to use. I always turned off annotations in videos as unless they were really well know they'd just be everywhere. The only thing I'd like to see added is the ability to add some at the start of videos too (if you can't do that already) just so you can add skip points in the video to help viewers get to certain parts of a long video.​
 

NoDragonsPlz

Renowned User
Freedom! Member
May 11, 2015
672
248
32
United States
YouTube
The problem I have with them is that for Let's Players, etc. We get harshly berated if we have something wrong so they were good for corrections. Not to mention, if we wanted to tell our viewers something in addition to that, we could use annotations to do so. I think they should make a something where you can insert text into your video that can be seen on mobile
 

TaurusGaming

New User
Mar 18, 2017
4
3
26
The problem I have with them is that for Let's Players, etc. We get harshly berated if we have something wrong so they were good for corrections. Not to mention, if we wanted to tell our viewers something in addition to that, we could use annotations to do so. I think they should make a something where you can insert text into your video that can be seen on mobile
OKEY[DOUBLEPOST=1489827094][/DOUBLEPOST]
I agree with where Youtube is going here, End screen cards are much better and save a lot of time as they can be placed in under a minute to have latest videos, channel links and social links if you have a website domain to use. I always turned off annotations in videos as unless they were really well know they'd just be everywhere. The only thing I'd like to see added is the ability to add some at the start of videos too (if you can't do that already) just so you can add skip points in the video to help viewers get to certain parts of a long video.​
very nice
 

Charles Meekins

Well-Known User
Freedom! Member
Sep 5, 2014
360
71
32
YouTube
i never used either but if i was going to use either end cards is what i would use as, i never click a link of an annotation while watching the video as i didn't like the way it takes you from the video ad starts the new one.

this could lead to me missing important parts of the video i was watch before, so having links at the end of the video is much better
 

Jack Mundy

Rising User
Freedom! Member
Mar 12, 2017
14
11
32
YouTube
yeh they can be soooo annoying for the viewer but can be very helpful for the creator, all depends on the boat you sit in. personally i never used them, wouldn't mind seeing the back of them
 

Indurok

Dragon
Freedom! Member
Well, at least when annotations are gone, if you make a mistake about something you say. You can simply delete the video, edit some text into it, wait another hour for it to render, and then upload it again. How GREAT would that be?

I know I don't usually add text annotations in my videos, but I did have to do it one time when there was a problem with a game I played that I wanted to address. What if I need to do that again. I'm gonna have to do it the way I mentioned above. That won't be very fun.

Plus, they unfairly estimated the percentage of annotation use. They should have allowed both to be used at the same time, THEN see how much annotations are used compared to the pre-end screen era.