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Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

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Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#191

Post by dageshi »

andsoitis wrote: post #189
dageshi wrote: post #7

Their search has got pretty bad I've noticed. They've changed it to start showing random shit you might want to watch instead of the thing you actually searched for after the first 10 or so videos. They seem to repeat videos they think you ought to watch quite often in search results as well. Significant downgrade on what it used to be.

> the thing you actually searched for after the first 10 or so videos. Isn't that a good thing? If you searched for something and the first 10 results aren't a match, why not introduce you to other things (one can experiment with finding how closely related those additional recommendations are, or based on other things you recently enjoyed, etc.)?

Not really, if what you're looking for is newer or less popular videos on a particular topic because you've already watched the most popular ones.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#192

Post by ChrisRR »

o_m wrote: post #22
gherkinnn wrote: post #19

YT on a clean slate is horrendous. Give it a few days and it becomes bearable. I’m mostly impressed. Though there is a growing number of anecdotes surrounding (niche|not palatable to SV) channels who’s subscribers don’t get notified despite the bell thing being on, new videos no longer in feeds, and even people getting unsubscribed for no apparent reason. This is a problem, as I’d sooner give up peanut butter than on…

I deleted my youtube/google account and started using RSS feeds instead.

Why not just use the subscriptions tab and ignore the home page?

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#193

Post by aninteger »

andsoitis wrote: post #184
antioppressor wrote: post #145

Recommendation system is long time broken. I am subscribed to 100+ channels and check 10 channels on a weekly basis, meaning I watch all the new videos these creators make. So that means I want the new stuff from the frequented ones on my front page ASAP. Yet, it's a hit and miss. From the remaining 90 channels I never get anything recommended. Why? If I subscribe to a new channel it gets recommended like hell, then…

It sounds like you find near-zero value from YouTube, so you might as well stop using it?

Maybe near-zero but not zero. They said that they watch content from 10 (out of the 100) creators they are subscribed to.

I'm in a similar position. I'm subscribed to 78 channels but typically will only watch content from a fraction of these due to preferences on quality and time (some creators have good content but end up putting up an hour video, which I am less likely to view).

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#194

Post by MiddleEndian »

coopierez wrote: post #51
avian wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad search that tries hard not to actually show you search results is another one of those dark trends I see everywhere. Have you seen Twitter search lately? The search tab in the app doesn't even have a text field visible by default. It's all just unrelated popular garbage. You have to swipe down to reveal the text field where you can enter your search term. Then you get more unrelated garbage in the "top" result ta…

Search on the iOS app store is awful too. You type in the exact name of the app you are looking for and have to scroll through 10-15 vaguely related results before you get to the one you actually want.

App stores are rent-seeking middle men. They provide no value over a simple Google search. In fact they seem deliberately worse, given that you almost always get the correct results at the top. Ironic that this applies to Google's Android app store as well. Their only purpose is to extract cash and control what you run on your own devices without providing value.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#195

Post by glcheetham »

popcorncowboy wrote: post #94

This is almost boringly textbook late-stage "monopoly in practice" playing out. Start with an "edge". Get big because edge. Use "big" to sharpen edge further. Use big (and/or edge) to consolidate market. Once sufficiently consolidated and/or controlled, raise costs. This is what costs getting raised looks like in a monopoly market. Who's gonna stop them.

It's not a monopoly, they're getting slammed by TikTok

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#196

Post by DevX101 »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #134

Machine learning probably had something to do with it. It notices videos with thumbnails of people with their mouths and eyes wide open doing some kind of shocked expression with red arrows pointing to something perform better than average. Then it starts recommending videos with thumbnails like this preferentially. YouTubers take notice and start producing thumbnails like this for every video. Go to the front page r…

I've long suspected many large production recommendation algorithms suffer from a positive feedback loop problem. In the example you point out, there probably is some real behavioral bias to focus attention on highly expressive faces. Then the algorithm picks up on this small bias and amplifies it, where the entire front page turns into young people with shocked faces.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#197

Post by delecti »

I can't relate. I primarily watch videos from my subscription page, but my homepage is full of videos similar to or related to the other videos I watch. There isn't a single video on my homepage that made me think "why would I get that recommended to me?", it's all at least potentially interesting.

And I agree shorts suck, but IMO that's because they suck as a format; the content of the shorts that are recommended to me are at least relevant.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#198

Post by duskwuff »

causi wrote: post #91
dageshi wrote: post #7

Their search has got pretty bad I've noticed. They've changed it to start showing random shit you might want to watch instead of the thing you actually searched for after the first 10 or so videos. They seem to repeat videos they think you ought to watch quite often in search results as well. Significant downgrade on what it used to be.

Yes. God help you if you're looking for a video not made by a popular youtuber. Saw an amazing fried chicken recipe ten years ago and think you can just scroll the results until you see it? Ha, fat chance. You've got about five results and then nothing but whatever horseshit is trendy today.

Recipes are particularly hopeless. There's a highly formulaic style of recipe video that caught on a year or two ago. Videos built on this formula usually have a title like "I have never eaten such delicious $X", usually with a thumbnail of a liquid being poured over some food, and frequently describe nonsensical or terrible recipes. These videos are useless for actual cooking advice, but somehow get a ton of engagement anyway -- I often get them as recommendations despite not even being interested in cooking videos.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#199

Post by kazinator »

aninteger wrote: post #193
andsoitis wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you find near-zero value from YouTube, so you might as well stop using it?

Maybe near-zero but not zero. They said that they watch content from 10 (out of the 100) creators they are subscribed to. I'm in a similar position. I'm subscribed to 78 channels but typically will only watch content from a fraction of these due to preferences on quality and time (some creators have good content but end up putting up an hour video, which I am less likely to view).

> I'm subscribed to 78 channels but typically will only watch content from a fraction of these

Statement indistinguishable from classic cable TV user.

Re: Ask HN: Why has quality of YouTube reduced drastically?

#200

Post by helsinkiandrew »

antioppressor wrote: post #145

Recommendation system is long time broken. I am subscribed to 100+ channels and check 10 channels on a weekly basis, meaning I watch all the new videos these creators make. So that means I want the new stuff from the frequented ones on my front page ASAP. Yet, it's a hit and miss. From the remaining 90 channels I never get anything recommended. Why? If I subscribe to a new channel it gets recommended like hell, then…

If you know what you want to watch why rely on Google recommending it to you? I only visit my subscriptions page:

https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

I don't have notifications on and when I visit YouTube I'll check to see what videos I want to watch since I last visited. I usually check the up next to see if anything similar/interesting is recommended and very rarely go to the home page to get recommendations.

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