YouTube looks to clean up their comments section with the help of Google+
Visiting YouTube’s comment section is enough to make anyone want to leave this planet for good. In fact, YouTube has built a reputation for harboring some of the worst internet trolls this side of 4chan. There was no easy solution on how Google planned on cleaning up YouTube’s comments, but today they announced their new plan of action and it involves, what else, but Google+.
Okay, so no surprise there. Google pulled a similar stunt back when they faced the task of cleaning up Google Play Store comments, and we’d say that it worked out pretty well for the most part. But, why Google+? Well, aside from obvious increase in foot traffic that it will bring to Google’s social network, Google+ knows more about you than just about anyone.
It’s your life’s finer details that will help Google show you first, the comments that are most “relevant” to you. This will ensure the cream — made up of your friends, famous YouTube personalities, and top voted comments — rises to the top of YouTube’s comments section, while all the other junk is buried underneath.
- Comments you care about move to the top: Posts from the videos creator will appear at the top (as they do now), along with popular personalities, “engaged” discussions about the video, and of course, people from your Google+ Circles.
- Join the conversation publicly or privately: Just like on Google+ you can start a public conversation that is seen by everyone on YouTube and Google+, or keep things viewable to only people in your Circles. Replies will be threaded, making conversations easy to follow.
- Better ways to moderate comments: YouTube creators will have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block key words, or save time by whitelisting comments from specific users.
The new Google+ integration has already begun rolling out on the channel discussion tab, and will begin hitting actual YouTube videos later this year. With a new YouTube app hitting Android devices in November, we’d imagine Google+ integration will also find itself baked in. What do you guys think? Do you think throwing G+ at the problem is the best way at handling YouTube trolls?