Comment by parsimo2010

7 months ago

> you can't hover your mouse in the gaps between columns while you scroll to prevent videos autoplaying when moused over

This might be intentional. Depending on how they calculate a view, this means they can pump up their stats they use to sell ads by making you "view" more videos than you actually click on.

I like the previews TBH. If you turn on sound in the preview, you can watch part of a video without seeing an ad. It only shows me an ad when I actually click the video to watch it, so I can spend the first minute or two watching the thumbnail to decide if the video is going to get into meaningful content and be worth watching the ad. Without previews, you click on a video, watch an ad, then watch the video for a minute or two before deciding you don't want to finish.

100% what I was going to say. Some team's dashboard somewhere has "number of auto plays" and it's an important metric for them.

Or your theory and its view fraud for ad or metric purposes.