YouTube is expanding hyperlinked comments. The Google-owned video-sharing platform is now increasingly adding hyperlinks to words in comments.
What are hyperlinked comments on YouTube?
As the name implies, hyperlinked comments involve certain words that have web links. Tapping on these words leads users to websites, which may be e-commerce platforms.
Last year, in a YouTube Creator Insider announcement, the company mentioned it would start running a limited experiment. Users would be able to initiate a search on certain topics straight from the comments section.
However, what YouTube actually meant was it would append a hyperlink to words if, “related information or topics are available”. These hyperlinked words would appear blue and have a miniature magnifying glass next to them.
Clicking on these hyperlinked words would take the YouTube user to a results page. The video they were watching would continue to play in a mini-player in the app.
YouTube is now expanding this ‘feature’ to mobile users
According to 9to5Google, there are several hyperlinked comments under YouTube videos for mobile users. Some users are seeing multiple words or phrases within a YouTube comment have become hyperlinked.
What is concerning is that there appear to be no specific or defined criteria for a word to get hyperlinked. In other words, the implementation of the feature seems random and excessive.
Back when YouTube announced this feature, it stated that hyperlinked comments were a way to “reduce friction” when attempting to learn about a subject or content. However, commenters cannot add or edit a link. The hyperlinked comments reportedly resemble some spammy blogs for suspicious products and services.
YouTube had originally assured that if they desired, creators could remove links from their video comments. However, the YouTube Studio platform, which offers all the controls for a video, does not show any toggle to disable hyperlinked comments. It is possible that YouTube could add the option in the future. Perhaps YouTube might offer to remove hyperlinked comments for paying subscribers.
