October 13, 2008 by Matt Thomas
In an effort to give YouTube a makeover, Google are implementing an audio preview feature in the comments board. It is thought the feature will improve the quality of discussion on the message boards by giving YouTube’s more inane posters a chance to self edit after hearing their dull, irrelevant or nonsensical comments read back to them by a computerised voice.
There have been reports of advertisers deciding against buying space on YouTube after noting that the comments board is often filled with bullying, irrelevance, incoherent anger and staggeringly dim-witted comments.
It’s not just advertisers that these messages annoy, it’s the general public too. So much so that one developer felt the need to develop ‘YouTube Comment Snob’ a Firefox extension designed to wheedle out the ‘unhelpful’ comments by searching for the bad spelling, over-punctuation and excessive capitalisation that often characterise those posts.
It would seem Google is determined to save us from ourselves with Audio Comment coming hot on the heels of Mail Goggles, the anti drunk-emailing feature on Gmail that was introduced last week. However, it’s not all for our benefit. YouTube’s advertising revenue is already showing signs of picking up due to the site’s commitment to reducing the amount of offensive content and comments featured on the site.
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