Google’s YouTube made a frustrating and time-consuming change recently regarding how you can physically enter keyword tags into YouTube’s interface.

I predict this may be a horrible change that may spread elsewhere, increasing the time it takes video creators to “write” descriptions/tags” in real time, as BigG/YT has now effectively blocked their ability to copy/paste their keyword tags from their own prepared text or list. They now must physically type in their keywords AND in the exact order they want them to appear. For high volume video producers, this is outrageous, but even for those who produce just one at a time, over time they could have 100′s of videos online. If they want to edit their keywords on existing videos, plan on spending a LOT of time, money or frustration doing so.

It also will NOT let you edit your keywords or change the order in which you typed them into the box. You can only delete them.

There must have a reason for this. There must be a reason they would deliberately increase the time and cost of typing what equates to a small paragraph form twice to 100 times the former cost in time and money.

One reason may be it prevents others from copying their competition’s keywords, but they made that impossible within the last few months. Plus, you can still use the YouTube ad keyword tool and type in a specific YT video and get a list of keywords for that site.

So what does this mean? And will other sites start doing this?

I’ve tracked down the link to the original article. Do read the comments about the dreaded “blue box” tags. Very insightful and generally outraged and disgusted with G/YT declaring war on their content developers:

http://youtubecreator.blogspot.com/2012/11/giving-you-more-control-and-convenience.html

Robin Carlisle

Rich, in the comments below his article, author Chris Atkinson freely admits he doesn’t know much…

“I referred to a barely-used channel while looking at this, and yes…there’s a custom thumbnail option there. Unfortunately, I’m not sure when this occurred because I don’t check it that often, but it is a partner channel. I do not have a regular user account to refer to on this…but if yours is not showing it then it might be just for those who have Partner/Creator/AdSense channels. That’s a far cry from what it was just mere months ago, but it may not be for absolutely everyone. Since YouTube is not good about announcing these little additions, it’s tough to know.”

He’s clueless about many things and obviously doesn’t understand the impact of what’s going on here. He pretty much just copied the “press release” put out by YouTube, without any thought to the effect of what it means to users.

For example, let’s apply this to a job you regularly perform for clients in posting typical articles on their website for them.

I would imagine if you have 10-20 such clients, you are entering their info in some type of database in order to more efficiently post your work… or you’re using other automated tools to do this.

You will no longer be able to do this efficiently and automation to accomplish this task, if possible, must be reinvented. You will be jettisoned back to the stone age and forced to perform simple typing tasks in real time. You can’t afford to just suck up the extra cost. You will have to charge more to clients and take a loss in profits to make up for the huge time loss in productivity.

I don’t think for one minute that this will be limited to just YouTube. This is Google implementing these changes.

And it may very well be some new technology they’re using that has caused them to quit caring about what tags or keywords you want to be used when promoting a certain article. This could explain a lot about the past year’s odd algo changes regarding how keywords and keyword tags are used to determine rankings in the SERPS.

I’ve been waiting for another shoe to drop that explains some of the blatant disconnects in Google’s past year updates and perhaps this is the other shoe dropping… first at YouTube… then who knows… back at Google? We shall see…

@atlantarobin Wow Robin Carlisle when i got your  message and read this message i sensed you are clearly upset. Yep Google has a knack for changing its game plan form time to time. Here are my thoughts:

1. maybe its a good thing that YouTube is getting rid of the keyword abusers, meaning yeah it may be more effort but now you will get ranked better.
2. I agree with  @kristi-hines try another browser and see if it still troubles you. I am sure there is a browser plugin in chrome that can fix the cut and paste probblem.
3. Lastly  this little piece of software  ( Free Youtube Uploader) is a great workaround and it is free. You can put your descriptions and tags offline before you upload.
   

@geoffrey-gordon 

Yep, Geoffrey, in writing I’m pretty incensed over this. In real life, it’s just another day, lol. Experience tells me this is not something to just gloss over. Here’s my thoughts on your thoughts on YouTube’s thoughts…

1. I’m not sure what you mean when you say “YouTube is getting rid of keyword abusers” as that’s not what they’re doing and there’s no such thing as a “keyword abuser” on YouTube as far as the keyword input box is concerned. This isn’t equivalent to keyword stuffing in a post on a blog. They’re not changing the number of words you can input as keywords. They’re just changing those type-written words into a graphic form — what they call “blue boxes.” So far, this does not affect ranking or give anyone an advantage over ranking “better.” It simply aggravates the process of “typing” and “editing” your keywords and slows it down to a snail’s pace. No one benefits from that. But obviously, they do in some way.

2. I’m not worried about “ranking.” Whatever they throw at me in that regard I will learn and champion. This, however, is more akin to them interjecting a QWERTY keyboard to slow us all down, but we have no risk of jamming keys against the batten here by typing too fast. Faster has always meant time saved and a penny earned… more money. Slower equals losing money. That’s the issue.

3. Apparently, this is rolling out over time on YouTube… It’s not a browser issue that Firefox or IE or Chrome could help me solve. It’s a change from a text-based system to a graphical “blue box” system that is NOT editable, only capable of being deleted. Somewhat like a text document vs. a non-editable PDF.Or imagine taking a screenshot of an article and saving it as a JPG file to use as a graphic, then trying to correct the spelling of a single word in that JPG. Again… just dangy. I uploaded a series of videos one day last week under the old system. The next day, all those “typed” keywords with the quotation marks changed into little graphic word buttons fully boxed in inside little blue boxes. Cute and deletable, but not editable or capable of being moved, reordered or copied. So the last half of my related uploads took twice as long to input as the first half. That’s a significant bad, bad thangy to me. (And, yes, please do try this yourself at home, lol. It’s a do-it-right-the-first-time kind of system or else you just have to delete, start over or walk away with less than perfect results).

4. If YouTube/Google succeeds in changing their interface to a graphical boxing-us-all-in system permanently, it most certainly will spread to other venues. Eeeecckkk!

5. Mass uploads are frowned upon and penalized by YouTube. Doing this the slow way by hand IS the safest, most professional, and standard way of uploading. Practice makes perfect, however, and I do this rapid-fire fast. Or DID this rapid-fire fast until the Blue Boxers slowed me down. I don’t do anything or use anything that risks my or my clients getting banned.

6. If this new retro-tech proceeds, then it will surely spread… like a virus… among online platforms. Their goal is profit, as is any competent company’s goal. However, this little QUERTY-like retro-tech is definitely aimed at slowing everyone down. Multiplied across platforms would be even worse.

7. This graphical interface is more like a kind of “security system,” the likes of which are usually found in more “defense” oriented industries or those with “high stakes” financial dealings such as lottery providers. But since YouTube already blocked your being able to directly view a video’s keywords, there’s no need to further “secure” those keywords. Unless they’re trying to “secure” your own keywords from YOU, which is what they’re now doing. You input your own keywords that no one else but you can see, yet they secure them from you so you can’t copy your own keywords. Bizarre.

8. The draw of YouTube has always been that it has leveled the playing field for everyone, making video affordable both to produce and distribute to mass audiences. Anything they do to make video MORE expensive and harder to produce, upload or display is regressive, unnecessary, and just plain old stanky, lol.

I first started professionally producing and editing audio and video with a razer blade… waaaaay back in the late 70′s… so I’ve watched a lot of up and down changes in this market. In the 80′s, $25,000+ could buy you about 5 minutes of Class A corporate video or get you a tiny little spot on Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Clients like Virgin Airlines never batted an eye at any price tag we placed on video work. Small businesses, however, couldn’t afford any video back then other than goofy little broadcast ads on local television. It was a luxury for the rich, famous or very well seeded corporate entity. Not a small businessman’s game.

And while we’ve come a loooooooong way in digitizing everything, speeding things up, and making video production accessible and doable for anyone and everyone with just a mobile phone, the direction ALL of this progress has taken is forward… with mass digital production causing HUGE drops in pricing for everything related to video capture, production, and distribution.

But where YouTube is heading with using a non-editable graphical interface is NOT progress. It is retro-tech. It’s negative mass market manipulation.

Oooooooh… just dangy! I hate being a Cassandra, lol… So I’ll just cross my little fingers, toes, and ankles and pray that YouTube thinks twice about their little retro-techy mistakey and free up and speed up our little keyboards again before it’s too late or till someone starts a Blue Boxer Rebellion.

Hmmmmm… I’m going off to seek inner peace now, lol. Aaaaaahhhhhhhmmmmmm…

Robin Carlisle

Oops – try this one >>>

http://youtubecreator.blogspot.com/2012/11/november-12th-live-stream-youtube.html
That’s better

this is something you have definitely put thought into! thoughts on everything…. great responses with wonderful information, good question to ask @atlantarobin

Not a hijack, Jason, as that is entirely relevant to the ongoing YouTube changes. And yes, they are indexing CC files — in this context meaning closed caption files, as opposed to the identical copyright licensing acronym.

Yes, they definitely have been indexing CC files and annotations. This is why YT SEOers have been advising these things be utilized and optimized. Every little bit helps.

As far as my own CC transcripts? Oooooo-eeeee, I took a peek yesterday at one I thought would be fine. I mean… when I use Windows dedicated speech-to-text to dictate… or even Google Voice messages when I’m out and about… those transcripts are ALWAYS 95% accurate.

Not so with YouTube. One transcript had me talking Martians, alien invasions, and rotten tomatoes in one little paragraph. Oooooo-eeeeee. I’ll have to teach that thang to understand me better. And here I was a-thankin’ I was a Radio Robin or somethin’ special. Oh, well…

Perhaps I should use a Ukrainian accent? Lol…

Robin