Do not forget that each YouTube video was covered with several odious annotations covering parts of the screen and asking you to click. Well, that time is coming to an inevitable end. The video platform ceased its annotations editor on May 2, 2017 and will cease posting annotations on January 15, 2019.

This is not really a loss – the annotations have never been good – but it marks the demise of a significant part of YouTube's history. The annotations went online in 2008 and were immediately used by YouTube artists to sell and recommend new videos. While this may have been commercially useful for YouTuber, the notes add to a frustrating visual clutter for viewers and are not designed for the mobile future of the platform.

In 2016, YouTube launched the end screens as a new interface for creating links to videos and sites at the end of a video without using awkward workarounds including annotations. The site has also added maps, a more orderly and less intrusive contextual option for text in the middle of video.

After the advent of these two features, Google noted that the use of annotations dropped by more than 70% in early 2017, which led to the annotations editor being dropped in the spring. We now have the exact deadline for older annotations. So you can watch your favorite favorite video with annotations for a look back at a simpler but more crowded period – or just let them die in peace.