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I had no idea, but there is this phenomenon with YouTube videos and the number 301. No, not a 301 redirect but 301 views. On popular videos, the video count would often hit 301 views and then stop and stay like that for up to 24 hours and then jump to thousands of views after that.
No one outside of Google/YouTube knew why it stopped at 301. There were rumors, theories but no official answer from Google themselves. That is until today.
Brady Haran posted a video named Why do YouTube views freeze at 301? with an explanation from YouTuber, Ted Hamilton.
The short answer is, YouTube decides to stop updating at that number to verify the authenticity of those clicks and future clicks. They try to eliminate "counterfeit views." Here is the video explanation on how this works:
Pretty interesting, but knowing Google, I know they can figure out a way to make this more real time. Get some of the search quality team folks over there to help out.
Forum discussion at Google+.
Comments:
Jon Barilone
06/26/2012 07:08 pm
Barry, quick question. Do answers in YouTube's Help sections count as "official Google answers"? http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/ozp7DWQvcI8 http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175736 I think the value of this video lies with the in-depth explanation of views, view counts, counterfeit views, and how YouTube verifies views. But the simple explanation of "YouTube freezes view counts around 300 to validate the count" has been around for a while now.
Barry Schwartz
06/26/2012 07:25 pm
Ah, didn't see it. I am sorry.
Nathaniel Bailey
06/27/2012 12:18 pm
Not to worry Barry, I didn't even notice they stopped at 301 and I'm sure the majority of people wouldn't even know about this without posts like yours to point it out :)
Stew Hornibrook
10/09/2012 08:25 am
So what if people start counterfeiting there views after 301 of coarse this happens then what is the magic number?
Social Media Buddy
01/10/2013 10:17 am
Youtube did it to stop .. spammers ? or something else ?
Gamertimenow
01/12/2013 05:27 pm
Do it stop on 301 in one ip?
Gamertimenow
01/12/2013 05:29 pm
or is it like when you reach 301 your views do not come?
Matty Evison
02/27/2013 04:18 pm
I posted a video on the 13th of February 2013 and it got to around 250 views fairly quickly, I would say a in few days. The next day it got to 301 and since then it hasn't changed. I have got friends to view it, I have viewed it on different computers and it is still staying as 301. What's happened?
Colonal Kohler
04/15/2013 10:30 pm
same thing has happened to me on like 30 videos
Ed
04/17/2013 06:41 am
maybe cause its automatically stopped until the authenticity is confirmed but unless its a trailer or an official music video, the people in charge of validating the authenticity simply don't bother to go back and check the video
DayTradingUni
04/18/2013 10:54 am
This is because YouTube has decided the extra views aren't real. If you sit refreshing your video 500 times, you will only get 301 views in the end because YouTube verifies the extra views after 301 as not legit.