On July 10, YouTube announced that it will remove its Trending Page on July 21. The page was first launched in 2015 and listed the top trending videos on the video streaming platform, helping people keep up with the trends and discover new content that others find intriguing. However, the page itself slowly transformed into a tool for content creators to boast views and hits of their videos. As per YouTube’s own admission, the visits to its Trending Page has significantly decreased, prompting it to take this action.
Why is YouTube Removing its Trending Page, Now Trending list?
In a blog post, YouTube revealed that it will remove the Trending Page and Now Trending list starting today, from its platform. However, if you are wondering why, the company has also given a reason. YouTube said that the video streaming platform has witnessed a significant decrease in visits from viewers to the Trending Page in the last five years due to a shift in user behaviour.
YouTube further highlighted that people have increasingly started learning about trends from different places on its platform, such as the recommendations and search suggestions to Shorts, comments, and Communities.
The Trending Page and the Now Trending list, in the 10 years that it was live, had slowly transformed into a medium for content creators on YouTube to brag about how their video was performing. However, this might not have been the initial intention behind it. Users often discovered trends, new creators, and trends by visiting the Trending Page.
But as personalised content recommendations became more advanced, people could have started gravitating towards the YouTube Home Page more for coming across videos and trends, tailor-made according to their interests. This, coupled with the falling visits, only added to its probelms, necessitating the removal of the Trending Page.
YouTube will continue to provide personalised content recommendations to its users
Photo Credit: YouTube
What’s next?
In the aforementioned blog post, YouTube also highlighted that, after today (post the scheduled shut down of the Trending Page), users will still be able to discover popular content in specific categories on YouTube Charts, which is currently available for YouTube music.
The video streaming platform said that viewers can explore YouTube Charts for finding Trending Music Videos, Weekly Top Podcast Shows, and Trending Movie Trailers. The company, as per the blog post, is working on adding more content categories to Charts. However, for gaming videos, it will continue to show trending videos on the Gaming Explore page.
Moreover, YouTube will continue to give personalised video recommendations to viewers. This is claimed to enable viewers to see a “wider range of popular content” that is relevant to them. Users can also visit YouTube’s Explore Page, the channels of their favourite content creators, and their subscriptions feed to discover content that is not personalised according to their preference. Additionally, YouTube mentioned that content creators can continue to use the Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio for coming across personalised ideas.
