The comments below every YouTube video has been always 
been a spammers club with special hostility towards women, color, the English Language and much more. Starting today, Youtube announced changes to the space below the video as it states “conversations that matter to you”.
Presently, YouTube comments appear in chronological order of recency i.e. the comments which have appear latest appear’s first. Though it has a “Top Comments” feature, it is not possible to check out the whole long list of comments and start a conversation. In order to start a conversation here are a host of changes we should watch out for :
1. The Top Comment’s List : Comments by video’s creator, top personalities, engaging discussions and most importantly your Google+ Circle shall appear first. Thus making it easy for you to participate in the discussion. Marketer’s and video creators stand to benefit the most as they would be able to monitor audience sentiments and reactions which are genuine.
2. Create Public or Private Discussions : With the new commenting format you can choose to comment and discuss with the public community or your Google+ Circle or even your special once. This will call for an amazing user experience especially if you wa
nt to discuss about a campaign video among your boss, colleagues or even clients with no one eavesdropping on your new strategy.
3. Creators become Moderators : Youtube shall provide a new set of tools to the video creators enabling them to approve comments, block certain keywords and allow reviews from special fans.
“There’s a lot of room for improvement,” said Nundu Janakiram, YouTube product manager, when asked about the current state of comments. “So comments will soon become conversations that matter to you.”
Janakiram insists YouTube hosts plenty of great discussions — it’s just that they often get buried under the bad ones. The new design works to surface smarter and more interesting discussions, bringing to the top any posts from the video’s creator, people in your Google+ circles, and what the site calls “popular personalities.” YouTube will also highlight more active conversations inside the comments and thread them for easier reading, as in Gmail. And if you’re a glutton for punishment, the firehose is still available — just click “all comments” on a drop-down menu where the discussion begins.
Will this new feature enhance the viewing experience and provide more leverage to digital marketers ? Feel free to share your views in the comments section.
Sagar Mandal's Blog 