YouTube has been using hashtags for a while now, but it earlier only showed content related to the hashtag.
YouTube says the “best videos” will show up on top of the hashtag landing page
YouTube has rolled out hashtags landing pages — pages showing videos with those specific hashtags. YouTube posted about this on its Google support page where it said that this new feature will help users discover videos through hashtags. While social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter have made extensive use of hashtags over the years, YouTube had only scratched the surface, until now. The new hashtag landing pages will be accessible through both the YouTube apps on Android and iOS and its desktop version.
Jensen from TeamYouTube shared on the Google support page that the use of hashtags on YouTube will change in a way that will help users discover videos by grouping content together. Till now, clicking on a hashtag on YouTube would show videos that used the particular hashtag combined with a lot of related content. With the update, clicking on a hashtag will take the user to a dedicated page that only has videos that use the particular hashtag.
Google has said the dedicated page for that hashtag will be sorted in a way that best videos appear on the top. It's difficult to assess what Google means by “best videos” as we found that clicking on #gaming showed videos that were at least not arranged by maximum number of views. However, the hashtag landing pages do show more specific results for videos compared to just searching for the phrase.
A video posted on the YouTube's Creator Insider channel also reveals that users will be able to search for a particular hashtag and get to a landing page for that hashtag. However, a report by Engadget citing a YouTube spokesperson says that this feature will be rolled out over the coming days or weeks.
As mentioned, the hashtag landing pages on YouTube have been rolled out for both mobile and desktop.
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