YouTube Adds New Shorts Shelf to ‘Trending’ Tab to Highlight the Top Shorts Clips

As it works to lean into the short-form video trend, YouTube has announced the addition of a new Shorts shelf display on the Trending page, which will highlight the best performing Shorts clips, in your region, at any given time.

As explained by YouTube:

“We’ve launched a Shorts shelf on the Trending page that will surface the most popular shorts by location. Shorts videos will be filtered out of trending results and will instead appear as a shelf. The goal here is to improve the user experience of the Trending page.”

As you can see in the example, the update will put more specific focus on the most popular Shorts clips, which should help to drive more traffic to the top content.

It’ll also assist in your research efforts, and understanding what people in your target market are watching on Shorts. And given the rising popularity of the option (Shorts clips have already surpassed 5 trillion cumulative views), it could be a good way to keep a finger on the pulse, and develop your own Shorts approach in the app.

YouTube also added a Shorts Shelf in channel displays earlier this year.

In addition to this, YouTube’s also rolling out new Shorts tabs on desktop, tablet and the web, which will provide more ways for users to engage with Shorts clips.

Up till now, only the mobile app has had a dedicated Shorts section, but again, with the popularity of the option on the rise, YouTube’s now looking to integrate Shorts into all forms of the app.

Despite TikTok’s ongoing growth, YouTube remains the biggest threat to its ongoing success, with its more advanced monetization process working as a key lure for creators who may eventually feel constrained by TikTok’s more limited money-making options.

On TikTok, creators are reliant on its Creator Fund and eCommerce or brand partnerships, but on YouTube, creators can use Shorts as a supplement to their main channel, which then drives more people back to their longer-form content, within which they can sign up for in-stream and pre-roll ads to monetize their work.

In other words, on YouTube, you can get paid, consistently, for simply being a creator, while on TikTok, you’ll eventually need to move into other forms of sponsored content or product endorsement to generate anywhere near the same revenue levels.

That could become a key sticking point, and while TikTok is still establishing alternate forms of monetization, YouTube is likely already stealing away some of its top talent with its more advanced monetization structure.

YouTube paid creators close to $15 billion in 2021. TikTok, meanwhile, generated around $4.6 billion in total.

Shorts may not be as good as TikTok, but as an additional avenue for driving traffic, that may not actually matter in the end.

YouTube’s new Shorts shelf in Trending is rolling out to users in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, France, Indonesia and MENA, with more regions to follow.