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I have the same issue with this as other commenters here: The article says that porn sites are designed to maximize engagement. As opposed to what, other video sites?
Maximize utility. Maximize search accuracy. Give people what they want rather than string them along for as much time as possible.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
YouTube copied a lot of features from pornhub like the heatmap of the most watched parts of a video.
Dang I saw that was a new feature but didn't know they'd actually started borrowing features from porn sites. What the heck is the youtube team doing that they're creating useful features slower than that sort of site?
I had a friend once tell me that porn was the driving force for innovation on the internet. Firstly getting the speeds up to load images, then videos with buffering then 4k, then VR. The design features and business model of porn sites is years ahead of anything else, for a reason these sites up until very recently were the majority of bandwith over the Internet. A business model you will start to see more which is v…
Wasn't porn the first ecommerce offering? Like they were the pioneers of "give me your credit card we give you porn." or is that an urban legend, I swear I've heard this remarked here on HN before, I just don't have any solid citations.
I have the same issue with this as other commenters here: The article says that porn sites are designed to maximize engagement. As opposed to what, other video sites?
A very naive thought, but isn't it a bit different for porn sites because of the existence of orgasms? If I'm watching TikTok and a really good video comes on I am encouraged to watch more but if there is a really good porn video I'm ... Done? At least for that session. So it's like they want to keep dopamine levels not cranked up, but at sustained medium levels. Again, I don't know anything about UX, please tell me…
Why is infinite scrolling not more popular with these sites?
With porn, it's usually a fetish that is only moderately popular, but broadly unoffensive. Because the average person who isn't specifically interested in the fetish isn't turned off by it either, that fetish gets more positive engagement relative to other fetishes; which drives studios to make more of it, and tube sites to advertise it more.
This pattern likely started with foot fetish, but really took off over the last few years with "step sibling" porn.
No one I've talked to is actually interested in the step-sibling fetish, yet the overwhelming majority of content being made and advertised - especially by mainstream studios and well-known actors - is step-sibling themed. Why? Because these studios are deciding what to make based on what's popular on pornhub, and what's popular on pornhub is literally anything these studios make. I sincerely doubt that they would see a drop in engagement if they diversified, but trends in data will never drive diversity faster than they drive convergence, because convergence is essentially the goal of data driven production in the first place.
It's also worth noting that the near-monopoly status of Mindgeek in the casual porn streaming industry has amplified this pattern. Their recent decision to stop hosting unverified content - good or bad - has had a pretty serious side-effect on the singular greatest driving factor of internet porn: piracy.
If a porn studio or independent actor doesn't want their content floating around pornhub, they can simply refuse to post it. Anyone who wants to upload a copy without their consent will fail verification.
So now, the only content being shared on pornhub is what creators hope will be interesting, and never what consumers want to share.
Most new competitive content creators are more concerned about getting paid than getting advertised because they don't have the financial buffer that established studios have; so they are less likely to put their content on pornhub, and less likely to by found by the casual consumer.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
YouTube copied a lot of features from pornhub like the heatmap of the most watched parts of a video.
Dang I saw that was a new feature but didn't know they'd actually started borrowing features from porn sites. What the heck is the youtube team doing that they're creating useful features slower than that sort of site?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
...once someone else had thought about it and executed them in an intuive manner
...like Google Earth?
Callous comparison. Take a step back and imagine what success, and reflection of good rankings algos would be on these sites. Longer engagement times and multiple videos (+ads) for YouTube. Shorter time on site and less videos for Pornhub. The interfaces would be designed accordingly with those end goals in mind.
Why would they want less time spent on the site? That's optimal perhaps for the user not site, and the article discusses how the site is designed to keep the user searching.
Still could cause some interesting 2+ order effects though!