Honestly, I don't care enough. As long as there is a search function, the rest just glazes over.

I do miss the days you could rate in stars though. I'm not a fan of the like-dislike function. Still, I do not care enough.

I miss when you could see the rating of videos before you clicked them..

Sadly, it has become standard on the internet that giving anything fewer than 5 stars is equivalent to 'I hated it'. I wish more sites would switch to using the binary Like/Dislike approach.

EDIT: This explains what I mean:

I see what you mean, but I still prefer stars to likes and dislikes. It would at the very least be nice to be able to see the ratings, like T-Nex said.

I don't really think the binary system works all that well. The star system at least prompted you to actually think about the thing you're reviewing. Opinions are discouraged; you either like it or you don't. It's a poor means to gauge quality. I dread the day when restaurant and product reviews take this approach.

I agree with Sekto. It's much easier to express your opinion for something with multiple options. Instead of just saying whether you liked it or not, you can say how much you liked it, which means you can get a more accurate general consensus on the popularity or quality (though with YouTube it's not always a seal of high quality viewing) of the video.

I feel like Youtube may be the only environment where the binary system is acceptable, and that's only because most of the videos hardly warrant an in-depth analysis. Watching a video on Youtube with more thumbs down than thumbs up isn't going to ruin your day or cost you a dime. I just hope it stays on Youtube, and doesn't bleed out into the real world where critical thinking and varying opinions are actually important.

The star rating system is better, but idiots who give things they don't like or love 0 or 5 stars can easily skew the result. I think it's better to just rely on word of mouth and written critiques. That way you can tell if the person if biased or stupid.

These days I only rely on my own judgement. And Redlettermedia.

I assume you're talking about professional reviews, in which case we can assume some thought has gone in to the judgement. But anything average score becomes less and less useful the more people who contributed to it.

I read (or at least skim) Amazon reviews rather than just looking at the number. It's much more useful that way, as you can take in to account differing tastes.

Amazon has a good system in that in addition to the stars, they show both the highest rating and lowest rating reviews on the front page to give you a clear model of both opinions. I'm fond of Pro/Con reviews in general, but again, that takes more critical thinking than "thumbs up/down".

Like I said, if the thing being reviewed is of little consequence or importance, a binary reviewing system is acceptible. I just don't want it to catch on in places where it shouldn't just because it's lazy convenient.