MKBHD reveals the top thing he would change as YouTube CEO

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So, Marques Brownlee – MKBHD – just dropped a pretty interesting thought. He was talking about what he’d do if he suddenly ran YouTube, and his biggest change would be… well, it’s a big one. He didn’t go into all the details, but it sounds like he’s got a clear vision for how to improve things.

Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD on YouTube, is a hugely popular tech reviewer with over 20 million subscribers. He’s famous for his detailed and thorough reviews.

On March 17th, he chatted with YouTuber Jon Youshaei about artificial intelligence, working with others, and key moments from his career.

Later in the interview, I was really interested to hear what Youshaei asked about YouTube’s AI stuff. He wanted to know what MKBHD thought about it all, and even put him on the spot, asking what he’d change if he was suddenly running YouTube as CEO Neal Mohan! It was a cool question to throw at him.

MKBHD reveals the one change he’d make if he was YouTube CEO

Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) has mentioned two things he’d like to see changed with YouTube. He wishes the dislike button would return, and he also finds the process of testing different video titles and thumbnails to be frustrating.

YouTube introduced a feature last year that lets creators experiment with different titles and thumbnails to improve video performance. Popular tech reviewer MKBHD appreciates the tool, but has suggested one key improvement.

He explained that it’s frustrating when video titles and thumbnails are constantly updated, leading him to accidentally rewatch videos he’s already seen. He prefers to settle on a good title and thumbnail right away instead of making repeated changes.

He’d really like a way to easily see videos he’s already watched, even if the video’s image or title has changed.

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The YouTuber also delved into his overall thoughts on the feature and how he uses it.

I initially did a lot of testing simply because the feature was available, but I discovered that most of the small changes we tested only resulted in very minor improvements – less than one percent difference, really.

We now primarily A/B test significantly different titles and thumbnails. For example, if we’re doing a review of an iPhone, we might test titles like, ‘Should you get the orange or blue one?’ We’ve found that people aren’t clicking based on minor details like color. They’re responding to the overall title, the feeling it creates, and everything else that makes up the presentation.

They also talked about how very popular creators, such as MrBeast, are likely to make small adjustments to their videos going forward.

It’s obvious Brownlee is frustrated by repeatedly stumbling upon videos he’s already watched, especially when their titles or thumbnails have been altered. Beyond that, his main request is simple: restore the dislike button.

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2026-03-17 23:19