Insight

So… I stumbled on this neat YouTube feature (that’s a screenshot, above. click for larger) as I was uploading those B-2 crash animations yesterday. I’m late to the party (as usual) coz Google rolled out the “Insight” product on my birthday this year…and the bastids didn’t even say “Happy Birthday! Here’s your analytics!”

I don’t upload a whole lot of vids… as a matter of fact I’ve only put up nine in approximately 18 months since I established my YouTube account. (“Nine,” sez you? “I only see seven.” That’s because I posted the B-2 vids yesterday; Insight works a day in arrears.) I was sort of surprised the vids I’ve uploaded got as many views as they have. But that’s neither here nor there…

Look at the “Demographics” section in the screenshot. Is it just me, or do you find those demographics worrisome? By that I mean how does Google know the age and gender of YouTube viewers? I don’t believe I’ve ever given Google that information about myself, so how do they get it? I googled (heh) “Insight” and went six pages deep into the results, looking for some “under the hood” information about Insight and came up empty… all I found were press releases and one Google/YouTube video telling you what Insight does, but NOT how it works.

Enquiring (and paranoid) Minds Wanna Know…

(Added: Since Blogger is a Google product, it occurs to me that I have given Google a lot of personal info... including my age, gender, etc. But not everyone has a blog, and not everyone blogs on Blogger. Just sayin'.)