The message boards at Google lit up this week with questions about an unannounced beta testing program for YouTube's emotional experiment, Moodwall.
It's a different way to organize and search for videos, categorized by "vibe". The broader vibe headings include funny, fast, cool, strange, creative, powerful, epic, deep, and of course, gross, as determined by YouTube.
A foul mood
A number of threads popped up in the Google Product Forums yesterday lobbying complaints about the unexpected advent of the Moodwall beta.
For example, user lagarto220 signed onto YouTube on Friday to find that the browse page had been transformed to the new vibe-driven format, and immediately wanted the old page back.
Apparently, the way to "opt out" of the beta is to clear the history and, more importantly, the cache of your browser, which gets rid of whatever cookie or metadata Google has employed to activate Moodwall's testing.
Google has yet to respond to this bizarre beta rollout, or to speak to the inspiration behind the new experience.
The real takeaway from the Moodwall beta is that Pokemon is fun, Minecraft is epic, and huskies are still, indeed, adorable.