Dear Software Makers
This article discusses Marques Brownlee's criticism of YouTube's new A/B testing feature for video variants, arguing it undermines the shared cultural experience of the platform. The author extends Brownlee's points, suggesting YouTube's feature development is driven by insecurity and a tendency to mimic competitors, a common pitfall in software making.
Why it matters
It highlights a significant debate about platform design, user experience, and the impact of A/B testing on content consumption and community building. It also offers a critique of product development strategies in major tech companies.
Marques Brownlee just released a video essay titled “Dear YouTube” .
He talks about how YouTube is going to start shipping this new feature where makers can essentially publish different “variants” of their videos and see which performs best (an A/B test).
Which immediately begs a lot of questions. Brownlee voices his:
It’s pretty wild when you think about it. I mean, imagine sending someone a link, “Check out this cool video!” And at that point you’re basically crossing your fingers, “I hope they see the same thing I did…”
Marques says he spoke to some YouTube engineers about these questions and they didn’t really have answers. They were kind of just like, “We don’t know — yolo! This’ll ship soon.”
So his video is a kind of plea to YouTube creators everywhere: Don’t use this feature!
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