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Think of it like a book cover. Regardless of a book's title or summary, an attractive (attracting? attention grabbing?) cover will get more people to click it. Also depending on where the thumbnail is displayed, you may not see the full video title, such as the grid after a video finishes playing.

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Unfortunately, the addage doesn't hold. You can pretty much judge the YT video by the cover.

I guess you’re in the minority of thinking people.

I have tobwonder how many variations of "gaping mouths and shocked expressions" we can come up with.

I do hate that style of thumbnail too. But hey, it just tells me not to click on the video. So it serves its purpose for me. But metrics I guess tell the youtubers that that thumbnail brings in lots of traffic. I think especially younger kids gravitate to it, unfortunately.

https://dearrow.ajay.app/ will replace those thumbnails automatically for you

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