Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

On YouTube’s recommendation system

blog.youtube

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 337 posts

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#221

Post by coredog64 »

blondin wrote: post #65
cronix wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visit in incognito mode and don't sign in. Brand new, fresh youtube, ready to be corrupted again.

incognito mode has been the best thing for me lately! it has become my normal browser mode.

Something we’ve noticed in our house is that if YT can’t figure out who is watching, it just uses the IP address. So I get recommendations based on what my kids watch, and my wife gets random recommendations for stuff based on what I watch.

I’ve tried the “Don’t recommend this” trick, but because the kids are subbed (or otherwise watch it), it still keeps coming back.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#222

Post by gremloni »

jeffwask wrote: post #44
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…

It's sad because I remember being able to find new and interesting creators passively. Now the main page is all corporate BS and the algorithm locks you in. We played a bit of WOW Classic last year and all of a sudden I was just flooded with Asmongold videos and videos of people clipping and replaying Asmongold. It took a day of "never show this again" to make it stop.

This is not my experience at all. Everything on my page is from independent creators.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#223

Post by sen »

city41 wrote: post #104
lordentropy wrote: post #5

For me, it seems like youtube's recommendation system mostly gets stuck in the local optimum. Once you watch a video from a particular channel, it'll keep on recommending the videos from the same channel for months. Soon, the recommendation just consists of stuff from the channels that have you already viewed. You rarely see new types of recommendations.

I am a huge YouTube addict and get sucked into it a lot. I used to discover all kinds of great channels and really enjoyed it. But lately I have noticed I'm not really finding much and the amount of watching I am doing has gone down a lot. Not sure if they changed the algorithm, or if I've just seen everything I like. I have definitely noticed YouTube is recommending me more clickbaity and mainstream stuff lately.

Same here, I'm physically disabled and YouTube is the only form of "tv" I watch, so I watch a fair chunk of it (understatement) and I've distinctly noticed a massive drop over the last... I want to say 6 months?... where I've found the recommendations to be totally useless.

Way way more recommendations for stuff I'd never consider watching, recommendations for "big" youtubers (I almost exclusively watch smaller channels based around niche hobbies), stuff like that.

I used to think their recommendation engine was amongst the best of any service I've used, now it's junk.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#224

Post by lotsofpulp »

isk517 wrote: post #219
lotsofpulp wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know quite a few casual runners (5K to 10K) and been running for over 15 years myself. Other than a $120 pair of running shoes every year or two, what is the expense? Maybe the water backpack things if you are into extreme running? It is not even a separate expense for me, as I just use my running shoes as my regular shoes. Also, maybe it is my gait or my lack of weight, but I estimate my shoes last 1k miles.

I suppose things aren't as expensive if you are a casual but I'm still surprised you can get 1k out of a pair of shoes. My mother also runs and is significantly lighter than myself and she gets shin splints if she doesn't change runners out at 500 miles. My current system is to run a pair of shoes for about 350 - 450 miles then downgrade them to a pair of walking shoes in till they fall apart. I started running fairl…

Yes, that sounds like it would add up! I feel like I would dissuade myself from going on a run if I had to get all that stuff ready. Even putting sunscreen on sometimes feels like a bummer.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#225

Post by bigmattystyles »

srcreigh wrote: post #214
yummypaint wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems pretty tautological. What you watch will reflect your reccomendations because there is a causal relationship there, unless you never use youtube for discovery. I alledge that what people spend time watching is more heavily shaped by reccomendations than they are aware of.

Personal experience sharing time. I use YouTube heavily, and even pay for YT Premium. The other day a little modal appeared on the side of youtube.com desktop saying something like, "Curious for new stuff? Explore content that isn't what you usually watch." It ended up being sorta like an alternate reality. It was all the topics I usually watch, but with different channels I don't normally see at all. In other words,…

YouTube premium is the best streaming service. There’s so much content of high quality content that’s relatively niche. I recently stumbled on SummoningSalt’s videos about speed runners and I can’t imagine any other medium that would create incentives for that type of content. Of course you don’t need premium, but no ads is great! I’ve gone on to support people on patreon from YouTube, from cgp grey to stuffmadehere. I can’t imagine finding that kind of content on Hulu, Netflix, et al. It’s possible there are YouTube alternatives as I’m quite old compared to a teenager.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#226

Post by gremloni »

sbierwagen wrote: post #20
pg_bot wrote: post #6

Can we get a button to stop recommending videos that have already been watched? On the front page out of 12 videos listed, I've already seen 7 of them and have no need to watch them again.

If you're logged in, hover over the video, click the three dot menu, then select "Not Interested". If you are not logged in you can't do this, for obvious algo manipulation reasons.

That doesn’t solve the problem at all. I like and am interested in the videos I’ve watched. I want the algorithm to know I’m interested, I just don’t want it watch something I’ve watched again.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#227

Post by mef51 »

If you think of the Youtube recommendation system as a person, you would immediately understand how creepily this person is behaving by trying way too hard to get what it wants from you (ad clicks) under the guise of caring about you or your interests.

Just because I click on a video and watch it entirely doesn't mean I want to see more like it, and it doesn't mean it was healthy for me to watch, it could have just been a distraction. But now this system will latch on to my need for distraction and keep nagging me with stuff in the long term that is ultimately harmful to me.

I don't believe recommendation systems like this can ever really understand people well enough where a person can walk away and feel healthy about it. But they are great at generating money and that is why they exist. I can see and appreciate the amount of effort that is trying to make these systems better but they are fundamentally flawed and limited.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#228

Post by smegger001 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #119
foofoo4u wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general I hate how YouTube is now filled with videos from high production studios. And most of these aren't even full-length episodes, but rather ~2 minute excerpts. I miss the old YouTube when most content was produced by individuals.

> I miss the old YouTube when most content was produced by individuals. “Old YouTube” was mostly full Simpsons episodes before they got taken down

>> I miss the old YouTube when most content was produced by individuals.

>“Old YouTube” was mostly full Simpsons episodes before they got taken down

I'm not sure I see the problem there.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#229

Post by smegger001 »

kikokikokiko wrote: post #41
id5j1ynz wrote: post #23

> For my oldest daughter, it was finding laughter and community with the Vlogbrothers. And for my oldest son, recommendations brought about a better understanding of linear algebra through animated explainers by 3Blue1Brown—with breaks to watch KSI videos. My first thought reading this was about reinforcing a stereotype as the son learning hard sciences and the daughter watching fun shows about people things. Did any…

Or maybe it's just what HAPPENS in real life when you have a son and a daughter, and it's effects can be seem on a societal level through, for instance, the number of male vs female hard science college applicants for instance. Different genders have different interests on AVERAGE. The fact that nature doesn't conform to a idealized view of an equal world does not make it "wrong".

equality of outcome vs equality of opportunity. you are never going to get the first because psychology and biology you can only provide for the second.

Re: On YouTube’s recommendation system

#230

Post by [deleted] »

mef51 wrote: post #227

If you think of the Youtube recommendation system as a person, you would immediately understand how creepily this person is behaving by trying way too hard to get what it wants from you (ad clicks) under the guise of caring about you or your interests. Just because I click on a video and watch it entirely doesn't mean I want to see more like it, and it doesn't mean it was healthy for me to watch, it could have just b…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN