CTA Hierarchy in the Wild
20 points by carlana
20 points by carlana
I can't help but appreciate what YouTube is doing here. It is a good thing that users know they're leaving YouTube to help mitigate if, say, someone clicked the link and ended up on a "Log in to YouTube" page.
Obviously this post has a perspective that youtube doesn't want you leaving to maximize watch time. And I'm sure they enjoy that benefit. But I can't see this in a purely cynical light.
I’m less generous on this for the reason that Google plays the same games with trying to get me to install their app on mobile.
Guess I should lighten up and see my misclicks as helping a rando PM crack L7.
I'm sure they enjoy that benefit. But I can't see this in a purely cynical light.
Same here. I'm reminded of Hubbard's collorary to Hanlon's razor:
Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which can be explained by moderately rational individuals following incentives in a complex system.
Not to discredit the author's experience! The end result of said incentive-following may very well be software that goes against the user's interests, and it happens in part because the "bad guys" are greedy. But we humans love our black-and-white narratives just a little too much—and I'm speaking generally, with myself included.
Well, given the post is about specifically about the priorities of the action choices, the question should be whether these can be reasonably defended on less than completely cynical grounds. In principle, a system where nothing works until you start reading the warnings could end up with frustrated but slightly more risk-aware users.
(I don't think Google would go as far in the name of user security if it was against their advertising interests, of course. Their ad networks have been used as malware delivery vectors a few times)