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On YouTube’s recommendation system

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Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#191

Post by Uupis »

jeffwask wrote: post #136
grumbel wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I started using multiple accounts, makes it a lot easier to keep the algorithm on topic and not get side tracked just because you searched for a song or game once. In the end the core problem with the recommendation system is simply that there is only one list of recommendations, which makes it damn near impossible to switch to a different topic unless you start account hopping. The new topic-bar helps a l…

I did this till I started paying for premium then it sucked.

I use the family plan for multiple accounts. Might not fit if you actually use it as a family plan, but it's working out for me so far.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#192

Post by paulpauper »

spiderice wrote: post #133
paulpauper wrote: post #61

You youtube algo keeps showing me fox news. I have not once clicked but it keeps showing me them. Also, what is the deal with mrbeast and other video always being on default? Did they pay for that exposure or what.

> Did they pay for that exposure or what Kind of. Mr. Beast videos make Youtube tons of money. Shouldn't be a surprise that Youtube pushes them harder than videos that don't make a ton of money.

Chicken, egg. I am sure finance videos with super expensive credit card ads would make more money for YouTube

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#193

Post by dkdk8283 »

Applejinx wrote: post #114
notJim wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found YouTube's defaults for a lightly-used profile (my work Google account) tend to be like Charlie Kirk/Ben Shapiro owning the libs type garbage.

Pretty sure that comes and goes. Comes, because statistically those youtubers are able to latch on to some viewers and this drives engagement. I believe some of that has been pay-to-win stuff, where the youtubers actively advertised and paid directly for engagement. Some of those folks are subsidized by outsiders. Goes, because YouTube knows from studying its own business that they're capable of driving more engageme…

You should stop using the word nazi. It’s disrespectful to those who lost loved ones in the holocaust.

Separately there is nothing wrong with people who have opinions different from yours.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#194

Post by lucb1e »

rubicon33 wrote: post #155

Be careful with YouTube. For years people have talked about social media's effect on mental health, but personally, I've found the biggest hit to be YouTube. Their recommendation system is really the heart of the beast. It's essentially a dopamine reward system, not too dissimilar from a slot machine at a casino. Pull the lever (refresh the page) and get random results! It sucks you in to a cycle of refreshing, findi…

> Far more productive, is going to YouTube for something SPECIFIC. Use the search function to find what you're looking for

I'd sometimes forget what I came for based on the recommendations from the homepage. Not that I was logged in and saw interesting stuff -- not even -- just the sheer uselessness of what people apparently watch the most (clickbait titles, soccer match replays, gasping surprised face with all-caps title, you know the type). Adding that part of the homepage to the ad blocker, using the pipette tool in uBlock Origin, helped a lot. Or add the youtube search to your address bar (firefox: add keyword search, or go via ddg bang commands) so you don't have to open the homepage to get a search box.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#195

Post by JohnFen »

paganel wrote: post #172
skybrian wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that means you've learned to care a lot about YouTube's recommendations? Another approach is to ignore them.

That's what I personally do, I treat the side-bar as basically an ad-bar and my peripheral view just ignores it. It wasn't always like this, about 7-8 years ago I used to discover lots of interesting music after watching some indie music video, but not anymore, at some point their algorithm just broke (it looks like it's searching for a local maximum and once it finds it it gets stuck in there, as someone else mentio…

> I treat the side-bar as basically an ad-bar and my peripheral view just ignores it.

I just now realized that I do this too. So much that I've never actually paid any attention to the contents of the sidebar at all. My brain just automatically filters it out.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#196

Post by dredmorbius »

robbomacrae wrote: post #179
swalsh wrote: post #11

The reccomendation system is absolutely dangerous. Just this summer, I watched one video on peppers out of curiousity. By the end of summer I've got multiple different varieties growing, and all the accessories to support them. I'm really enjoying my garden, but it's very unlikely I would have started one without the youtube algorithm. Similarly my doctor reccomended I exercise more, so I started running. Then I goog…

YouTube's recommendation system (and googles search engine if you see the comments in the other post today https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28550764 ) somehow escapes the flak that other systems, such as Facebook news & posts, get but I find it's equally damaging to society. There seems to exist a downward spiral where content that is prioritized to be attention grabbing over all else gets the most clicks and the…

Kara Swisher of The New York Times (previously ReCode) has been absolutely biting in her criticisms of Google generally, Youtube specifically, and other current tech monopolies.

Directly to Susan Wojcicki's face in a live public interview: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zKrQzJgFWdw

(Starting about 1:50 into the interview.)

Also numerous times in her column and podcast (I can chase those down if requested, though they should be prominent).

See "Algorithms Won’t Fix What’s Wrong With YouTube" https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/opinion/youtube-algorithm... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20184282)

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#197

Post by lucb1e »

dashoffset wrote: post #113
gothroach wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you select not interested, it gives the option of saying it's either because you already watched the video or that you don't like the channel. I don't know quite why they keep recommending videos I've watched recently, but at least telling YouTube I've seen a video (...) prevents it from spamming my recommendations.

> I don't know quite why they keep recommending videos I've watched recently You probably don't have kids.

Because kids watch furniture restoration videos that GP was talking about?

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#198

Post by lucb1e »

coconut08 wrote: post #35
function_seven wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but then Youtube thinks, "He hates that channel!", rather than, "He doesn't want to rewatch old videos." I keep getting old furniture restoration videos in my feed. I've seen them already. How about different channels on the same topic with new videos posted?

you can tell youtube you've already seen it. you hit "not interested" and then click "tell us why" and then hit "i've already seen it".

It's quite a few clicks when you could just mentally skip over it, but indeed I wanted it to learn so I went through the trouble. Again and again. Probably more than a hundred times. It doesn't learn. I just pass over them now. The algorithm probably knows better than all of us what keeps us longer on the site anyway and the button is just a dummy.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#199

Post by lucb1e »

sbierwagen wrote: post #95
barbazoo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right but somehow I would think that YT should know which videos I've already watched...

There's lots of music on youtube. Some "videos" get rewatched hundreds of times.

Those are in a category called music.

Even without the category system, if the user never ever goes back to rewatch a video they've seen, it could perhaps realize that the user doesn't want to rewatch videos they've already seen. Or if some videos or channels have a very high re-watch rate and others don't (presumably music channels vs., say, a random furniture restoration channel), it could tune for that. Clearly they're not separating the types, and it's not because they're not capable.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#200

Post by MMS21 »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #54

A lot of comments here seem to not know: 1. If you don't have your YouTube activity history enabled, the algorithm doesn't remember what you've watched and you'll probably get clickbaity/junky recommendations. 2. If you have set your history to expire after some amount of time, it will start re-recommending videos you've already seen once it has forgotten you have watched them. You can set both options here: https://…

I have my watch history turned off so the red bar doesn't appear in thumbnails of videos I left a quarter way through. YouTube still shows me videos that I've watched years ago (Primitive Technology for example a channel which has stopped producing content) and left likes on. How is it that their algorithm doesn't factor in likes/ dislikes at all?!
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