Google has announced that YouTube users will now have access to in depth statistics for their videos.
Stats include how often videos are viewed in different geographic regions and how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. The lifecycle of videos is tracked, including how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.
To quote Tracy Chan from YouTube:
“Insight gives the creators an inside look into the viewing trends of their videos on YouTube, and helps them to increase views and become more popular. Partners can evaluate metrics to better serve and understand their audiences, as well as increase ad revenue. And advertisers can study their metrics and successes to tailor their marketing — both on and off the site — and reach the right viewers. As a result, Insight turns YouTube into one of the world’s largest focus groups.”
To access the statistics, users click on the “About this Video” button under My account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos.
More analysis to follow; at the time of writing all I get from YouTube when clicking on my account button is the twin messages of “This functionality is not available right now. Please try again later,” and “We are currently performing site maintenance. Be cool – we’ll be back 100% in a bit.”
Update: it’s now up. The main chart feature is nearly identical to Google Finance. The break down via country and state is handy. This will suit most YouTube users and its a definite step forward.
