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Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

youtube.googleblog.com

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Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#271

Post by nightski »

AgentME wrote: post #205
throwawaysea wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it YouTube's business to judge truth and falsehoods and provide a manicured walled garden? That seems like an avenue for all sorts of manipulation, censorship, etc.

YouTube is already an avenue for all sorts of manipulation. They recommend harmful crazy conspiracy videos to unsuspecting people all the time right now. (9/11 conspiracy theory videos might just sound silly, but I'm also thinking of stuff like racially-charged holocaust conspiracy theories and baseless anti-vaccine stuff.) I think you're way too optimistic if you don't think those are likely converting many people a…

I don't find this true at all. Youtube is pretty biased in recommending videos closely related to what is in your history. It's pretty rare I get something that is not directly related to a recently watched video (this is clear because if I delete said video from my history the recommendations go away).

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#272

Post by tokyodude »

fivre wrote: post #270
tvanantwerp wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actively avoid watching YouTube videos linked from Reddit or similar sites just to avoid this phenomenon.

Opening almost all YT links in a private/incognito window does WONDERS.

I do this. it has pluses and minuses. the plus is I'm not tracked. the minus is YouTube can't recommend. Sure of course if it's a cat video then I dont want YouTube recommendations but I watch almost all videos in incognito mode to avoid tracking. I'm not sure which ones I want YouTube to know and which I don't.

Maybe I'd just prefer to get links from friends

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#273

Post by thaumasiotes »

paulddraper wrote: post #203
maxxxxx wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the AI stuff is really still incredibly dumb. Same for Amazon: Buy a mixer and suddenly you will be haunted everywhere by ads offering more mixers.

You think that's dumb, but I bet the marketing data behind that says otherwise. You think "I already have a mixer, idiot!" but in reality the chance that you are interested in buying a mixer just went from 1% to 2%. (Because you want another one, because you want to gift one, because you returned yours, etc.)

This has been discussed on HN before.

The last time I saw an Amazon employee weigh in, he said the ads are in fact not effective but the ad team isn't measuring it well. In particular, he claimed that he showed them that after adjusting for returns, the order-again rate for a particular expensive item was effectively zero, they asked him to repeat his study for another product, and he wandered off and found work to do for his own team.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#274

Post by InclinedPlane »

imhelpingu wrote: post #262
atonse wrote: post #40

We currently don't allow our son to watch anything on youtube, simply because it's a cesspool of horrible videos for children. You're always almost one click away from some violent video where cartoon characters are getting their limbs chopped off, etc. And it's sickening that Google's done nothing about it. Secondly, I can't watch any video without it taking over my recommendations. Alex Jones for example. I still h…

Thanks for sharing your personal opinion about videos you've never watched.

Nobody needs to watch an Alex Jones video to have an opinion on the man. He is a garbage person who spreads lies and propaganda. This isn't an opinion, this is Jones' own admission in court of what his program represents.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#276

Post by intertextuality »

brianpgordon wrote: post #123
atonse wrote: post #40

We currently don't allow our son to watch anything on youtube, simply because it's a cesspool of horrible videos for children. You're always almost one click away from some violent video where cartoon characters are getting their limbs chopped off, etc. And it's sickening that Google's done nothing about it. Secondly, I can't watch any video without it taking over my recommendations. Alex Jones for example. I still h…

What do you want them to do? I'm an adult who uses YouTube and I don't want sanitized kid-friendly recommendations just so that you can protect your son's eyes from cartoon violence. In fact, several of the creators I like have been pinched hard by changes to the All-Powerful Algorithm which seem to be deliberately de-emphasizing anything that could be remotely considered offensive, and it's not fair to them at all.

Employ human curated collections, no algorithms. There is simply no other way that guaranteed kid-friendly content will exist in a space. Otherwise people will game the algorithms and you get Elsa-gate.

I’ve talked about this before, but if you have kids, the only surefire solution is curating the videos yourself and downloading them. Then playing them offline. Anything else is a gamble, which may or may not be the route you want to take.

YT cracking down on videos also has a lot to do with skittish advertisers. I’m not sure if a solution is possible other than utilizing Patreon, librepay, etc. Even if you don’t make “controversial” content, that’s what most people do these days for consistency, as well as merchandise.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#277

Post by gundmc »

sincerely wrote: post #263
mcrittenden wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube Kids is a separate app. Does that not suffice?

No, YouTube Kids has the same problem. Content on it isn't really vetted in any way.

Have you used YouTube Kids recently? You can set it to "Approved Only Mode" which only allows kids to view human-vetted videos.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#278

Post by gundmc »

intertextuality wrote: post #276
brianpgordon wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you want them to do? I'm an adult who uses YouTube and I don't want sanitized kid-friendly recommendations just so that you can protect your son's eyes from cartoon violence. In fact, several of the creators I like have been pinched hard by changes to the All-Powerful Algorithm which seem to be deliberately de-emphasizing anything that could be remotely considered offensive, and it's not fair to them at all.

Employ human curated collections, no algorithms. There is simply no other way that guaranteed kid-friendly content will exist in a space. Otherwise people will game the algorithms and you get Elsa-gate. I’ve talked about this before, but if you have kids, the only surefire solution is curating the videos yourself and downloading them. Then playing them offline. Anything else is a gamble, which may or may not be the r…

YouTube Kids is a separate app and it has an option to only allow human-vetted videos. From the support site:

"In this setting, your child will only be able to watch videos, channels and collections that you have hand-picked. Collections are videos and channels grouped by topics, such as science and music, picked by the YouTube Kids teams or our partners."

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#279

Post by gundmc »

webwanderings wrote: post #56
minimaxir wrote: post #43

It's worth noting that this blog post appeared less than 24 hours after BuzzFeed News posted an article explicitly highlighting the conspiracy theories in the recommended section: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/down-y... I helped contribute to that article, feel free to ask any questions!

Have you investigated their rabbit hole for children? YT for Kids simply needs to die. They are evil.

Have you used YouTube Kids in the last ~6 months? They made a lot of changes and enabled a mode where only human-vetted videos from topics/creators you select can play. I don't have kids but had assumed that problem was largely addressed.

Re: Continuing our work to improve recommendations on YouTube

#280

Post by aaron695 »

>To that end, we’ll begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways—such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11.

So this will apply to Christian(etc) videos?

Or is this really code for videos we consider alt-right? Cause we all know it is. aka Republicans.

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