YouTube is enabling users to exclude YouTube Shorts from search results, which is great news for those looking to delve deeper into topics, or enjoy longer-form video content.
Users can head to the advanced search tools in order to drop Shorts – the three minutes or fewer vertical clips designed to rival the social media apps – from the results.
That’ll lead to a more traditional yield of search results from YouTube creators. It could also mean viewers have to wade through less of the AI-generated content that has flooded the platform in the last couple of years.
This is a positive change, as far as I’m concerned. When I come to YouTube for a video – as opposed to Instagram – it’s because I want the proper how-to explainer, or the full recipe video, or the full highlights from the Premier League game. This should make that content easier to see.
YouTube explains in a new support document: “We’ve added a new Shorts filter to the ‘Type’ menu. This gives viewers more control over whether they see Shorts or VODs (long-form videos) in their search results, so you can find exactly what you’re looking for, regardless of format.”
Furthermore, Google is adding new options to Prioritise certain results. That replaces the existing ‘Sort By’ menu and appears to be more of a name change than anything else. As is the decision to change the View Count filter to Popularity.
Meanwhile, Google is removing the option to search for “Upload Date – Last Hour”. That change I’m not a fan of at all. It can be a really handy way to find the latest update from a creator, broadcaster, or tech company that has published content to YouTube most recently. Google is also removing the ‘Sort by Rating’ option.
The company adds: “However, you can still find the most recent search results in one of our ‘Upload Date’ filters, and explore popular, highly-viewed videos using the new ‘Popularity’ filter option.”
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