YouTube Select is an app that promises to save you the effort of discovering the best videos on YouTube, claiming to have done the job for you
All of us love youtube videos but it has been a frustrating experience searching for high quality videos amongst the millions of videos on youtube. We did the hard work for you. We invited the best in the business to recommend their favorite videos.
I definitely like the idea of having all the best of YouTube just a few taps away in one handy app, with no need for lost of browsing and digging on my part. Read on for some thoughts on how well this app delivers on the concept
What Does It Do?
YouTube Select aims to provide you with a solid ‘Best of ‘ compilation from amidst all the masses of YouTube content. It promises ‘2 hours of quality entertainment ‘ and the funniest videos, as well as those which are ‘obscure and hard to find ‘.
Of course, all ‘best of ‘ compilations are subjective and prone to create quite a bit of debate. In this case, that shouldn ‘t matter too much if the overall level of the content is strong. The app ‘s description tells us that its content was ‘hand-picked by a team of creative designers, movie production managers and stand up comedians in New York city ‘.
The app is quite basic in terms of layout and navigation, with its main sections accessible via the bottom nav bar. Those sections are: Ouch, Oops, Wow, Aha, and Fav.
What Does It Do Well?
I think the content selection is pretty good, especially if you ‘re a big sports fan. There is not that much of it (under 100 clips total I think) but what is there is quite good, very rarely disappointing.
I especially enjoyed the Sarah Palin ‘greatest hits ‘ sort of compilation “ brilliant example of being unintentionally hilarious.
And of course I am a big sports nut, so there was some great stuff in the Wow section, from MJ vs. Dominique at the Slam Dunk contest
To a Top 10 great boxing knockouts that was spectacular and included maybe my all-time favorite “ Tommy Hearns just destroying Roberto Duran
YouTube Select is a free app, but carries some ads. The ads are handled well, and not intrusive when using the app.
What ‘s Not So Good?
The section headings are not distinct and clear enough, and the division of content amongst them, and overlapping of types of content, adds to the sort of jumbled feel. For instance, videos of Sarah Palin silliness cut across both the Ouch and Oops sections. I think this should be revamped and clearer headings should be used.
There ‘s not that wide a range, or diversity, of types of content. It is heavily weighted towards pranks (including some very NSFW stuff), funny videos, and sports highlights. I think broadening this out to cover more types of video “ music videos are just one area that springs to mind “ would be a good idea.
It ‘s not easy to favorite something “ the ‘Fav ‘ tab instead takes you to a screen where you can add fresh videos of your own choosing if you manually add the link etc. That ‘s useful to have, but a decent method for favoriting the videos within the app was what I expected to see on that screen, and is something that should be in the app.
The worst shortcoming though is that the content is not being refreshed often. I ‘ve had the app for around a week now and have not seen a single update yet. I ‘ve watched pretty much everything I want to watch within the initial content provided now and really would like to see updated material on a frequent basis in order to make this app a keeper.
There ‘s also no real user feedback or social element to the app. I think you should be able to rate the videos and see how others are rating them at the very least.
Overall
YouTube Select is a good concept, but it ‘s not implemented well enough as yet.
It needs more often refreshed and more varied content, an ability to favorite the videos included in it, and some social / interaction elements to make it more compelling.
If it adds some of those sort of features it could become a frequently used entertainment app “ if it doesn ‘t it feels more like an app that only gets kept around for a short time.
YouTube Select is in the App Store now, and it ‘s a free app.
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TAGS: iphone apps
