YouTube auto generated channels for SLPs

Quite by chance, I noticed yesterday that there was a YouTube auto generated Channel for Augmentative and Alternative Communication.  Remembering that Kate Caryer had asked members of the “Unspoken” Group for links to AAC media, I popped straight over to Facebook to post the link.

When I came back to YouTube, I could not find this channel again.  This time, it didn’t turn up in the search results for “augmentative and alternative communication”.  So back I went to Facebook to find and copy the link that I had posted there.  Only I could not find the “Unspoken” Group!  So back I went in my browser history to find it, resolving to bookmark the channel and subscribe to it, in order to save time in future.

I was intrigued to know where this channel had come from.  The answer is on the Official YouTube for May 4th 2012,  “Finding and following new channels you love“.  There is further info on the YouTube Support Page – extract below:

Channels auto generated by YouTube

Channels auto generated by YouTube are channels created by algorithms to collect trending and popular videos by topic.  Auto generated channels act like user channels in that you can subscribe to them and stay updated on new videos.

Auto generated Channels FAQ

How does YouTube determine when to create an auto generated channel? An auto generated channel is created when YouTube algorithmically identifies a topic to have a significant presence on the site. It might be because there are a minimum number of videos or watch views about this topic. We also determine if the quality of the set of videos in that channel meets some thresholds.

How does YouTube auto generate channels? YouTube algorithmically determines the central topics in a video and then uses that information to develop great collections of videos for any topic of interest. These channels do not convey any editorial opinion.

How does this page differ from a search results page? The auto generated channel presents a collection of videos about a singular subject. When the same term can have multiple interpretations (egs., Chicago: city, musical, movie, music band), the auto generated channels reflect one interpretation of that term. In addition, auto generated channels provide:

  1. The ability to subscribe and get regular updates about this topic on YouTube on your feed
  2. A way to find other channels related to this topic
  3. More context about this topic from Wikipedia or other sources

 

Except that it is not that easy to find these auto generated channels.  It gets a lot easier once you have found the first one.  As it says in point 2 above, these channels are, “A way to find other channels related to this topic”.  As good place to start as any would be with the YouTube Speech-Language Pathology Channel.

It is not clear from the information on YouTube whether an auto generated channel might disappear if it becomes less popular.  The key to getting your video included in an “Auto-Channel” is careful tagging of uploaded videos – see the YouTube Support page for more information.

Although a YouTube search is unlikely to help you to find an auto generated channel, at the moment at least, there are some ways to track them down.  They are quite complicated, so that will be for another post.

In the meantime, I have bookmarked a couple of hundred or “Auto-Channels” of interest and they are listed in this pdf file:

YouTube_Auto-Channels_-_Speech-Language-Communication (pdf)

There are many more auto generated channels of interest so do check the recommended channels at the side when you visit any of these.  Sometimes the recommendations will include “real” channels as well.  Or just dive in and start exploring the videos in the auto generated channel.

You can see some of these (the maximum allowed is 18):

NOTE:  There are other video sharing sites of course.  There are some excellent videos on Vimeo and the quality tends to be more professional than you might generally find on YouTube.  You are also much less likely to be bothered by “trolls” and “spam comments” on Vimeo, so it is well worth considering going off YouTube or duplicating sites if you have videos that you want to share.


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2 thoughts on “YouTube auto generated channels for SLPs”

  1. Update 2 April 2013:
    Link to list of YouTube Auto-Channels bookmarked on Xmarks has been replaced with a downloadable pdf file, due to the Xmarks link breaking repeatedly with random url changes for the shared folder page on Xmarks.

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