YouTube is rolling out changes to its search filters designed to make it easier to narrow results to the format you actually want, including the ability to specifically view Shorts or avoid them in favor of longer videos. The update also changes how some filters are labeled and organized, including renaming options such as “Sort by” to “Prioritize,” and replacing “View count” with a “Popularity” filter that factors in additional engagement signals like watch time. YouTube says it removed certain filters (including “Upload Date - Last Hour” and “Sort by Rating”) because they weren’t working as expected and drove user complaints, while keeping broader upload-date filters like “Today,” “This week,” “This month,” and “This year”. Overall, it’s a practical, user-friendly tune-up that should ...
YouTube is rolling out changes to its search filters designed to make it easier to narrow results to the format you actually want, including the ability to specifically view Shorts or avoid them in favor of longer videos. The update also changes how some filters are labeled and organized, including renaming options such as “Sort by” to “Prioritize,” and replacing “View count” with a “Popularity” filter that factors in additional engagement signals like watch time. YouTube says it removed certain filters (including “Upload Date - Last Hour” and “Sort by Rating”) because they weren’t working as expected and drove user complaints, while keeping broader upload-date filters like “Today,” “This week,” “This month,” and “This year”. Overall, it’s a practical, user-friendly tune-up that should help people spend less time hunting and more time watching what they came for.
Highlights:
- Menu reshuffle: The search filters menu is being reorganized alongside the new and renamed options, so frequent filter users will see a different layout on both desktop and mobile.
- Cleaner long-form hunts: Several outlets framed the Shorts filter as a quality-of-life improvement for people looking for longer explainers without wading through short clips first.
- Shorts discovery: YouTube is also enabling the opposite use case: a dedicated way to filter search results to show only Shorts when that’s what you’re after.
- AI “slop” concern: Some coverage notes that an exclude-Shorts option may be especially appealing amid complaints about low-quality, AI-generated content appearing on the platform.
- Expectation match: YouTube described the set of filter changes as an effort to align the search experience better with what users expect when refining results.
Perspectives:
- YouTube (product rationale): YouTube framed the filter update as a way to make search refinement clearer and more aligned with user expectations, and it removed certain options after finding they were not working properly and had contributed to complaints. (9to5Google)
- User experience (long-form viewers): Commentary across outlets highlights that long-form viewers often want to avoid mixed-format results, and the new content-type filtering helps them quickly focus on longer videos. (The Verge)
- User experience (Shorts viewers): Other coverage emphasizes that Shorts-focused searching is also getting easier, with a dedicated Shorts filter for people who prefer quick, vertical videos. (Digital Trends)
Sources:
- YouTube makes a big change in the way you'll see content - androidpolice.com
- YouTube will now let you filter Shorts out of search results / The company is making a few changes to search filters, including adding a new ‘Popularity’ one. - reddit.com
- YouTube will let you exclude Shorts from search results - engadget.com
- YouTube rolling out search filters update that renames and removes - 9to5Google - google.com
- YouTube Is Adding an Option to Remove Shorts From Search Results - pcmag.com
- YouTube will now let you filter Shorts out of search results - theverge.com
- YouTube now lets you filter search results to only see Shorts - digitaltrends.com
- YouTube is giving its search filters a big shake-up - androidauthority.com
- YouTube Now Lets Viewers Filter Out Shorts in Search Results - techjuice.pk
- YouTube rolling out search filters update that renames and removes - 9to5google.com
- YouTube Will Now Let You Filter Shorts Out of Search Results - slashdot.org
- YouTube introduces new search filters with the option to avoid Shorts - betanews.com