YouTube has announced that after ten years, it will retire the trending page, which it describes as “the pulse of what’s trending on YouTube” and includes popular videos from the platform.
In a blog post, the YouTube team wrote:
Back when we first launched the Trending page in 2015, the answer to “what’s trending?” was a lot simpler to capture with a singular list of viral videos that everyone was talking about. Today, trends consist of many videos created by many fandoms, and there are more micro-trends enjoyed by diverse communities than ever before. Viewers increasingly learn about trends in different places across YouTube – from recommendations and search suggestions to Shorts, comments and Communities. With these shifts, we’ve seen visits to the Trending page decrease significantly, especially over the last five years.
The page will be phased out over the next couple weeks, according to the post.
To meet the changes in how viewers find content, YouTube is making a few changes. First, instead of a Trending Now list, YouTube users will find charts of the top videos of the week, including top music videos, top podcasts, and top movie trailers. Rather than looking at what’s trending across the entire platform, YouTube will focus more on personalized recommendations. Users will still find more general trending content in the Explore tab. And, for creators, YouTube will use the Inspiration tab to give insights about trending topics and ideas to help get content in front of more viewers.