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YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

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Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#53
post #22

The UX for google products has gotten so much worse. I've had problems with youtube search recently, but because I use google more often it's so much more obvious with google search. Like I hate how they have that bar that keeps changing different search modes, before 'images', 'videos' used to be in a fixed position, now I have to go searching for it in a soup of unrelated words like 'Finance', 'Flights', etc.

IMO Android UX is pretty great, for a personal computing device. YouTube's UX is also pretty great, for an ad delivery network. It succeeds at showing you ads. YouTube doesn't really care if the search function gives you the right or wrong search result. Totally irrelevant as long as you click something, anything and your eyeballs are on the next ad. YouTube is optimised for keeping you watching ... literally anythin…

That's also why Google doesn't leverage YouTube to its true potential. YouTube has the lowest revenue per user of all the video platforms and this is the reason why.

And trying to increase its usability and profitability outside of ads would affect negatively Google's overall business.

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#54

youtube needs a competitor. i hate their products, i hate youtube music more. but i can't use something else.

YouTube has competitors, but none of them are very serious about the job. They're just kind of vibing in slightly-adjacent niches, afraid to take a bite at the top dog.

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#55
post #6

Life hack, maybe it will help someone out: Add a "before:YYYY" to the search to go back to a simpler time. Eg, "before:2012 python talk" As an experiment open two tabs and compare the results of "python talk" and "before:2012 python talk". The difference is staggering.

My only complaint about this is that so much of the old stuff has been removed, privated, marked as age restricted, blurred due to refusal to be marked as "for kids"[1] and removing the comment section, or otherwise made inaccessible by their authors. The reason usually being that it's embarassing or otherwise doesn't reflect the uploader's modern persona. A lot of awesome content is missing from the results due to that, and that thought alone makes me sad when I use this feature...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viTkj0eu-fk

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#56

Maybe they outsourced the search algorithm and now use Amazon’s product search algorithm for YouTube.

This!

Both Amazon search and trying to workaround it's problems by using it's "categories" are frustrating experiences.

It also extra annoying that sometimes you do get, and other times you don't get a link to category specific product you're looking at belongs.

And as soon as you sort/filter reaults it goes from bad to even worse.

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#57
post #6

Life hack, maybe it will help someone out: Add a "before:YYYY" to the search to go back to a simpler time. Eg, "before:2012 python talk" As an experiment open two tabs and compare the results of "python talk" and "before:2012 python talk". The difference is staggering.

That is a good tip. Many people doing this will run into another silent youtube change, which is higher resolution options for older videos are completely removed. Some videos I have in my saved playlists marked 'HD 1080p' now only have a maximum resolution of 240p. Very sad.

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#58
post #3

I wonder if a distributed attempt to build a complementary index for YouTube could be an answer; wherein users install a browser plugin that captures the results and metadata of a given query or metadata when a video is watched.

NewPipe search just works perfectly. I gave up searching anything on youtube.

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#59

you get what you pay for, right folks? surely with a youtube premium account you get the premium search experience.

Unfortunately no, I paid for premium for a while believing this, but the experience is exactly the same.

Though it's very possible I'm just missing the sarcasm here.

Re: YouTube's search function is atrocious now [video]

#60
post #55
post #6

Life hack, maybe it will help someone out: Add a "before:YYYY" to the search to go back to a simpler time. Eg, "before:2012 python talk" As an experiment open two tabs and compare the results of "python talk" and "before:2012 python talk". The difference is staggering.

My only complaint about this is that so much of the old stuff has been removed, privated, marked as age restricted, blurred due to refusal to be marked as "for kids"[1] and removing the comment section, or otherwise made inaccessible by their authors. The reason usually being that it's embarassing or otherwise doesn't reflect the uploader's modern persona. A lot of awesome content is missing from the results due to t…

People should be allowed to remove their persona from the internet.
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