I had no idea, but there is this phenomenon with YouTube videos and the number 301. No, not a 301 redirect but 301 views. On popular videos, the video count would often hit 301 views and then stop and stay like that for up to 24 hours and then jump to thousands of views after that.

No one outside of Google/YouTube knew why it stopped at 301. There were rumors, theories but no official answer from Google themselves. That is until today.

Brady Haran posted a video named Why do YouTube views freeze at 301? with an explanation from YouTuber, Ted Hamilton.

The short answer is, YouTube decides to stop updating at that number to verify the authenticity of those clicks and future clicks. They try to eliminate "counterfeit views." Here is the video explanation on how this works:

Pretty interesting, but knowing Google, I know they can figure out a way to make this more real time. Get some of the search quality team folks over there to help out.

Forum discussion at Google+.