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Understanding Video Counts
Have you ever wondered how the various video sites determine a view count?
TubeMogul conducted a study of the various video hosting sites by uploading videos, monitoring the conditions and recording the counts.
| Site |
Full View |
<1/2 View |
>1/2 View |
Refresh |
Embed |
| AOL Uncut |
Count |
Count |
Count |
Count |
Count |
| Dailymotion |
Count |
Count |
Count |
No Count |
No Count |
| Google |
Count |
No Count |
Count |
No Count |
No Count |
| Metacafe |
One/IP addr. |
One/IP addr. |
One/IP addr. |
One/IP addr. |
One/IP addr. |
| Myspace |
Count |
No Count |
Count |
Count |
Count |
| Revver |
Count |
Count |
Count |
Count |
Count |
| Yahoo! Video |
One/IP addr. |
No Count |
No Count |
One/IP addr. |
No Count |
| YouTube |
Count |
No Count |
No Count |
No Count |
One/IP addr. |
As you can see, YouTube only ads one count per i.p. address, per fully watched video. No partial views get counted. When a video is embedded, it only gets counted once per i.p. no matter how many times the video is viewed. Yahoo Video and Metacafe are even more stringent.
Compare this to Revver which gives a count to a full view, a 1/2 view, less than 1/2 a view, refreshes and embeds. Big difference. Why would Revver be so slack on a count? The only reason I can think of is hyperbole.
Posted to online video by Drew on
September 23, 2007
5:16 PM
Comments:
+ Britney Mason
Drew
Shouldn't multiple views count? Same as embedded? Why would they not count?
Brit
Posted: September 23, 2007 6:18 PM
+ Jamie Wilkinson
I think YouTube only counts uniques on embeds because of the frequency of autostart embeds, particularly in places like MySpace. Cruise a few profiles and you might end up "watching" the same video multiple times without even realizing it.
Also, watching the same video multiple times on the actual YouTube site could be because folks are coming back for the comments, to see the latest response videos, etc, and that somehow makes it count 'more'?
Posted: September 23, 2007 6:42 PM
+ Bill Cammack
Very interesting. I've been wondering about stuff like this. Obviously, stats are being skewed for better or for worse, depending on whether you want an accurate understanding of how your video is being watched or you want to be able to say that your videos are more popular than they really are.
Posted: September 24, 2007 1:11 AM
+ annplugged
Andrew, you are stating that "YouTube only ads one count per i.p. address, per fully watched video."
But - if I interpret the table correctly - it is only true if it is embedded. Multiple full views count on the youtube site itself regardless of the IP, after all you may watch it with somebody else for a 2nd - 3rd time. In my experience it's quite typical to stand around the screen for sth catchy.
But multiple views outside the youtube page, just as Jamie pointed out, may be set up to autorun, so youtube may be more stringent outside of yt.
Yes, TubeMogul is right: some standardization would help all parties. Thanks for the link!
Posted: September 25, 2007 10:35 PM
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