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Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

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Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#71
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weak ad hominem attack. Not sure why you wasted a comment for it.

I think your comment better applies to the tweet being referred to, though, not sure "ad hominem" extends to a group of unspecified people.

I can't see why stereotyping (especially that which is uncharitable) shouldn't be classed as an ad hominem attack.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#72
post #61

the thing I hate the most are personalized ads and amazon suggestions that keep pestering you for weeks about an item you just bought and don't need anymore

You bought a cable for your phone yesterday. Why don't you buy another one? Don't you wanna buy? You sure? Here are the best single cables in your area ready to be hooked.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#73
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click the three dots and then either "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel". Seems to work reasonably well for me.

What if it's from a channel I like but don't want to watch that one video...will clicking on this reduce suggestions from this channel, will it do nothing, will it unsubscribe me from that channel(as has happened in the past), ...? Nobody knows, I only know I don't want to play this game.

The best way of not playing this game is to, well... not play it. Why should you pay any attention to what YouTube "suggests" you should watch? I just treat YouTube as a service that hosts videos, with a mediocre search feature, and I have no interest in what it thinks I should watch.

If a real human mentions a video that piques my interest, I may watch it. If I'm interested in finding a video on a particular topic, or a specific scene from this-or-that film or TV show, I will search for it myself. If am interested enough in a certain producer's content, I may "subscribe" to them, but I will be the judge if I want to watch the latest video they uploaded.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#74
post #62

Even in a tweet about algorithms the guy can’t help but dunk on men to show what a nice guy he is.

Weak ad hominem attack. Not sure why you wasted a comment for it.

I missed the part where this was a debate

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#75
post #20

It's annoying clicking some youtube link only to find it was something you really don't want more of, and then youtube proceed to recommend much more of it, even though you barely watched any of it. kinda forces me to watch something else that is new but at least somewhat wanted in an attempt to make the algorithm look at the new shiny i'm interested in and forget the previous one. i find it funny though when amazon…

use Invidious https://docs.invidious.io/Invidious-Instances.md

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not use the built-in profile functionality?

can you use them in parallel? in any case i don't want any correlation between the two (other than the IP i guess). in my case i often log in to the same website from different accounts for testing purposes

You can you them in parallel and they share no extensions, sessions, website settings, or other local data. You can even have separate themes for each profile.

I'm unaware of any potential problems relating to fingerprinting and so on, but for your use case it doesn't sound like it'd be a problem.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not use the built-in profile functionality?

God knows if Google does any kind of cross-correlation between them. I would actually expect it.

They are also part of the Chromium project, so you're welcome to check it out, inspect the source code, and build it locally.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#78
post #22
post #20

It's annoying clicking some youtube link only to find it was something you really don't want more of, and then youtube proceed to recommend much more of it, even though you barely watched any of it. kinda forces me to watch something else that is new but at least somewhat wanted in an attempt to make the algorithm look at the new shiny i'm interested in and forget the previous one. i find it funny though when amazon…

Click the three dots and then either "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel". Seems to work reasonably well for me.

I’ve been trying it for a few months. I dutifully clicked away every preposterously stupid clickbait title or thumbnail and topic I didn’t care about. It had no noticeable effect.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if it's from a channel I like but don't want to watch that one video...will clicking on this reduce suggestions from this channel, will it do nothing, will it unsubscribe me from that channel(as has happened in the past), ...? Nobody knows, I only know I don't want to play this game.

The best way of not playing this game is to, well... not play it. Why should you pay any attention to what YouTube "suggests" you should watch? I just treat YouTube as a service that hosts videos, with a mediocre search feature, and I have no interest in what it thinks I should watch. If a real human mentions a video that piques my interest, I may watch it. If I'm interested in finding a video on a particular topic,…

> Why should you pay any attention to what YouTube "suggests" you should watch?

There is one advantage: some obscure music videos. There are some rare pearls with the comments section almost exclusively thanking YT algorithm for taking them there. Happened to me so many times that I have a separate browser instance and a Google account for YT and I'm very careful what I click when I use it.

Re: Afraid to Google a thing because I don't want the algorithm to think I like it

#80

I'm mildly curious about the whole Jordan Peterson anti-woke movement. Mildly, as in, I'm interested in the arguments but I often don't agree with them. I once made the mistake of clicking on a Peterson YouTube video and subsequently got only obscene alt-right "Peterson KILLS stupid feminist reporter!!" type of edited content. Like at some point 80% of my suggestions was crap like that, drowning out all the lovely ne…

It's a consequence of the algorithm optimizing for engagement. YT obviously wants people to stay for as long as possible, to interact, write comments, upvote/downvote and follow the chain of recommended videos. The longer they stay on YT and the more content the consume, the more ads YT can show and the more money they make.

Anti-woke/alt-right type content is provocative, controversial and makes people engage with. Either because they want to enthusiastically join in or because they want to dunk on it for how ridiculous it is. And the people who are into it are generally really into it, so they'll keep watching hour after hour of it.

YT doesn't care, as long as they get as many people watching videos and looking at ads as they possibly can.

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