Unviral
September 25, 2014 12:45 PM Subscribe
Underviewed brings low-viewcount YouTube videos to the surface by searching for default filenames (such as IMG_003.MOV) in the title.
I can already feel myself needing to block this because I can imagine losing so many hours to something like this.
Immediately I'm obsessed with "Why is the guy in the black camouflage holding a golf ball (or is it a ping pong ball) and what is he saying in Russian (maybe?) and why is he holding the ball directly in front of the camera and shaking it and what is he discussing with the cameraman we hear but never see?"
And then I must find the next story.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:06 PM on September 25, 2014
Immediately I'm obsessed with "Why is the guy in the black camouflage holding a golf ball (or is it a ping pong ball) and what is he saying in Russian (maybe?) and why is he holding the ball directly in front of the camera and shaking it and what is he discussing with the cameraman we hear but never see?"
And then I must find the next story.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 1:06 PM on September 25, 2014
Ohhh, this is nice.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by Foci for Analysis at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2014
I've done something similar on my own by just doing youtube searches by smacking the keyboard - a video called aldkfjl could be anything! I got a couple on underviewed that I was the first ever to see! Neato.
posted by Makwa at 1:12 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by Makwa at 1:12 PM on September 25, 2014
The first video I click on is some kid shooting a raccoon to death with a pellet gun. Great. In the kid's defense it looks as if the raccoon had rabies though.
posted by Daddy-O at 1:13 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Daddy-O at 1:13 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
The breathfull anticipation of this one is really kind of great.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:15 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by sparklemotion at 1:15 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
Shoot, if you want to see a bunch of underviewed Youtube videos just go to my page.
posted by zzazazz at 1:22 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by zzazazz at 1:22 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]
I was the first person to ever watch this video, and that is just criminal.
posted by drlith at 1:50 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by drlith at 1:50 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]
God bless randomness.
posted by sexyrobot at 1:51 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by sexyrobot at 1:51 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
There are really a lot more YouTube videos of sleeping babies than I ever imagined.
posted by randomkeystrike at 1:54 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by randomkeystrike at 1:54 PM on September 25, 2014
This one took me straight back to my days in industrial packaging.
posted by randomkeystrike at 1:56 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by randomkeystrike at 1:56 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
And to clarify, that is not a video of a sleeping baby.
posted by randomkeystrike at 1:57 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by randomkeystrike at 1:57 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
Some of these are awesome, like the unintelligible Korean music festival video I just saw. Others make me feel uncomfortably voyeuristic, like the one with a bunch of kids on vacation swimming.
posted by slogger at 1:57 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by slogger at 1:57 PM on September 25, 2014
What does the maker mean by 20-50 views being the viral sweet spot?
posted by maggieb at 2:28 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by maggieb at 2:28 PM on September 25, 2014
I'm not a gamer, so I have no idea what's going on here.
posted by mrbula at 2:46 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by mrbula at 2:46 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
PetitTube does the same thing, and has been around since early 2013, at least (a.v. club wrote about it earlier this year).
posted by effbot at 2:49 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by effbot at 2:49 PM on September 25, 2014
great, now i have the "Super Savior" song stuck in my head.
posted by ennui.bz at 2:51 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by ennui.bz at 2:51 PM on September 25, 2014
Behold, a dude in a grocery cart getting towed behind a car.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
First show ever...not all of the show..just a song. it took forever to upload
...and then no-one watched it. For three years. Until now.
posted by ceiriog at 2:59 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
...and then no-one watched it. For three years. Until now.
posted by ceiriog at 2:59 PM on September 25, 2014 [2 favorites]
YouTube doesn't really do a good job of showing accurate view counts for videos without a ton of views. I bet it doesn't when there are a lot of views either, but it's harder to tell.
posted by aubilenon at 3:56 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by aubilenon at 3:56 PM on September 25, 2014
This is fascinating. And also revealing.
Android VID_20121002 gets a little NSFW.
posted by tallthinone at 4:09 PM on September 25, 2014
Android VID_20121002 gets a little NSFW.
posted by tallthinone at 4:09 PM on September 25, 2014
aubilenon: “YouTube doesn't really do a good job of showing accurate view counts for videos without a ton of views. I bet it doesn't when there are a lot of views either, but it's harder to tell.”
Why do YouTube videos get stuck at 301 views?Lauren Rae Orsini, The Daily Dot, 25 June 2012
posted by ob1quixote at 4:35 PM on September 25, 2014
I'm not a gamer, so I have no idea what's going on here .
That's just Skyrim being Skyrim.
posted by brundlefly at 4:43 PM on September 25, 2014
That's just Skyrim being Skyrim.
posted by brundlefly at 4:43 PM on September 25, 2014
Also, this is really neat. Thanks for the link!
posted by brundlefly at 4:43 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by brundlefly at 4:43 PM on September 25, 2014
And there's now a curatory subreddit
I'm sure this won't become problematic in any way.
posted by cashman at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]
I'm sure this won't become problematic in any way.
posted by cashman at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2014 [3 favorites]
Really flattered this made it to the blue, and absolutely delighted to hear folks are enjoying the discovery process.
One of the first great videos I found while building the site was GoPro footage of two guys riding the Slingshot. The one guy's laughter is infectious, and the look on the other guy's face (0:38) is priceless.
My coworker found this video, and I'm not sure if there will ever be anything to top it.
maggieb: I took a guess at what the view count would be, for a video to become viral. My ballpark was 20-50 for a video to remain under the radar, before it caught on and blew up. Total guess on my part.
posted by avoision at 6:00 PM on September 25, 2014 [5 favorites]
One of the first great videos I found while building the site was GoPro footage of two guys riding the Slingshot. The one guy's laughter is infectious, and the look on the other guy's face (0:38) is priceless.
My coworker found this video, and I'm not sure if there will ever be anything to top it.
maggieb: I took a guess at what the view count would be, for a video to become viral. My ballpark was 20-50 for a video to remain under the radar, before it caught on and blew up. Total guess on my part.
posted by avoision at 6:00 PM on September 25, 2014 [5 favorites]
The first video I watched I was the first person ever to watch it. Ever. Possibly because it was shot sideways as the dude walked through a rain forest with some other dudes. He may not have known that the camera was on.
The second one was 30 seconds of Chinese-language television programming in close-up, upside down.
The third one was the voice of an English-speaking woman cooing over the pictured cheese (?) casserole she'd just taken out of the oven. She commented on how it made a bubbling noise, then held the camera close to the casserole to amplify the bubbling noise.
In the far future, alien archeologists will ask themselves, Why were they uploaded? Why?
posted by the sobsister at 6:10 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
The second one was 30 seconds of Chinese-language television programming in close-up, upside down.
The third one was the voice of an English-speaking woman cooing over the pictured cheese (?) casserole she'd just taken out of the oven. She commented on how it made a bubbling noise, then held the camera close to the casserole to amplify the bubbling noise.
In the far future, alien archeologists will ask themselves, Why were they uploaded? Why?
posted by the sobsister at 6:10 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
I will need to watch more to try and answer that question for myself.
posted by the sobsister at 6:11 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by the sobsister at 6:11 PM on September 25, 2014
I guess this was a viral video a few years ago (a fake homemade video of a prank going horribly, violently wrong), but the fact that someone uploaded it in very low res and it had zero views made me feel like I was really just seeing some random, forgotten home video, so the ending was pretty effectively shocking.
posted by straight at 7:26 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by straight at 7:26 PM on September 25, 2014
Similar to the underviewed reddit is /r/deepintoyoutube
posted by AaronRaphael at 7:35 PM on September 25, 2014
posted by AaronRaphael at 7:35 PM on September 25, 2014
I was just the first person to ever watch a video of one dude painfully uncorking a champagne bottle into another dude's be-boxered crotch. A++
posted by threeants at 8:22 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by threeants at 8:22 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]
In the far future, alien archeologists will ask themselves, Why were they uploaded? Why?
I know why this kid was uploaded. It's awesome is why
posted by Start with Dessert at 1:05 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
I know why this kid was uploaded. It's awesome is why
posted by Start with Dessert at 1:05 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
One method to discover under-viewed videos that I have used is to pick the lowest ranked video in the right column of any page. Repeat. You can get from the home page down into the single digits in just a few steps.
posted by bitslayer at 5:07 AM on September 26, 2014
posted by bitslayer at 5:07 AM on September 26, 2014
Oh. My. God. That video of the dog riding the tortoise, avoision. If I ever had the ability to even, I've lost it.
posted by that's candlepin at 7:44 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by that's candlepin at 7:44 AM on September 26, 2014 [1 favorite]
Man, I actually find this kind of creepy, given the frequent appearance (for me at least) of baby or childhood videos and knowing a number of young parents who think nothing of putting those videos on youtube so they can link them to their family and such. I get that youtube being public is kinda the point, but I'm certain I have friends who'd be very creeped out by having a couple hundred internet strangers casually watching their baby playing in a pool, especially since they probably wouldn't know about a thing like this.
posted by neonrev at 8:42 PM on October 4, 2014
posted by neonrev at 8:42 PM on October 4, 2014
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posted by me3dia at 12:47 PM on September 25, 2014 [1 favorite]