Why can I have a channel with the same name as someone else?

[coliwob]

I thought this would be like with twitter "someone else is already using this name" etc

But, apparently not. I just tried a name and then searched for it because I thought to myself, that this name has definitely been taken. And there are two channels with the same (now three if you include mine)

Am I missing something, or is that just the way it is. Whats to stop me creating another pewdiepie and reaping benefits from searches?

I always though channel names were unique.

 

[DigiBox]

URL Will be different.

In addition once you pass 100k subs you can get verified which gives you a tick showing that you're the real deal.

 

[ThatBrickBloke]

This always used to be the case but changed a few years back when YouTube allowed the creation of brand channels (which allows one YouTube account to have up to 50 channels - each with a unique URL). Once you get over a certain number of subscribers you can claim a username which will change the random set of numbers and letters after /channel/ with a more readable URL and this will be yours - but the name of the channel can still be changed and isn't guaranteed to be unique.

Hope this helps!

 

[xingcat]

It can definitely lead to a lot of frustration, but I'm guessing due to the number of channels that are created and retired (or abandoned) on YouTube, I can understand the decision not to require all channels to be unique in terms of name.