On a cold winter Valentine’s Day, in 2005 — the co-founders of YouTube — Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, incorporated YouTube as a dating site. Yep, you read it right. No, we’re not kidding. YouTube was supposed to be a dating site. To them, dating was the obvious choice, complete with the slogan: “Tune in, Hook up.” 😳

It is safe to say that the plan did not come to fruition.

A screenshot of YouTube’s homepage in early May 2005 I Source

Now, as a platform used by approximately 2.3 billion users worldwide, a lot of YouTube’s success can be attributed to Google. Since Google acquired the platform in 2006, it has changed its business model entirely.

Today, YouTube’s functionality is synonymous with Google’s.

Every time you have a doubt — you YouTube it!
Want to know how to fix a puncture? — youTube
Want to know the easiest way to make butter chicken? — YouTube to the rescue!
Want to see edits of your favourite TV show ship? — just YouTube it, ya 👀

Every question that you possibly have — YouTube will answer it. 🔍

Nothing is holdin’ me back — from making playlists

YouTube has a variety of features to offer. Right from a community tab that lets creators interact with their subscribers to liking or commenting on videos to making playlists of your favourite songs.

Finding a song on YouTube isn’t the problem, but we are dutifully precise about the artists and the songs we listen to when it comes to music. One search, and you’ll get at least a million options for the same. It starts getting painful when you prefer one version over the rest.

For instance, I don’t want to listen to “a song by Shawn Mendes from his self-titled album”. I want to listen to “Shawn Mendes performing ‘Fallin’ All In You’ live at the Sziget Festival in 2018.”

When you finally find something you like, your first instinct is to save it for later or add it to a playlist.

P.S. You can make playlists for every musical need — from missing your boo to wanting to really-but-not-actually murder someone. Or a playlist that is a compilation of songs by your favourite artist. Yes, that too!

And before you know it, you’ve made a dozen playlists, with 500 odd songs each.

Days pass by, your playlists await, and on an oddly bright, randomly-picked-by-the-universe day, your mood is back — to listen to Shawn Mendes performing ‘Fallin’ All In You’ live at the Sziget Festival. You smile because the playlist was freshly minted just a couple of days ago! The very next moment, though, your eyes pop. Your playlist has a random sequence of 500 songs, after all. Happy browsing the playlist!

Summer of Search

We’re essentially suggesting adding a simple & basic ‘search’ feature to YouTube playlists. Hi, Google. Yeah, search, playlist search!

So the next time you want to look for that one version of Shawn Mendes’ ‘Fallin’ All In You’ that sits comfortably amongst a swarm of songs that you handpicked to create your very own, one of its kind playlist, you won’t have to spend minutes browsing the lengths and breadths of your creative creation.

Okay, here’s how the search feature in YouTube playlists will work!

Once you’ve created a playlist (with a bizarrely high number of songs), you don’t have to worry about getting lost in this sea of songs. One quick search within the playlist, and bam — even the most obscure version of a song that you’ve saved will be available in an instant!

Here’s what your screen will look like:

That’ll help you save up on time and energy — while helping your mood stay untouched. 🤭

Happy searching, I guess?
And off I go, to my date with one of my favourite Shawn Mendes songs!