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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]

#81

Post by red-iron-pine »

jerlam wrote: post #17
frfl wrote: 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.

We'll probably all need to start adding "before:2023" to all our search queries when the deluge of AI-generated content crowds everything else out.

there was tons of BS content, often digitally created, before 2023. the difference is 40% (then) vs 95% (potentially, soon)

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

#82

Post by mid-kid »

wildrhythms wrote: post #60
mid-kid wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, but that doesn't make it less of a shame when people remove content thousands of people enjoy.

Information that goes on the internet never truly goes away, be it through personal archive sites or more general ones like archive.org (which archives youtube.com directly), it just becomes harder to find unless specifically sought for.

The knowledge that I'm most certainly missing something when doing dated searches, and I'm viewing results filtered by people's current-day hindsight, instead of the unfiltered essence of the youtube of yesteryear makes me sad. We lost a lot of authenticity in the pursuit of flawless public images.

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

#83

Post by Suppafly »

jsheard wrote: post #19
duskwuff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse yet: there's also a "previously watched" section, which - as far as I can tell - ignores your search query entirely and just spits out a few videos from your watch history.

I'm at least spared from that because I turned off YouTubes watch history completely. I find it's better behaved that way because the related videos section just shows videos similar to the one I'm watching, rather than trying to "learn" my interests and invariably getting it completely wrong. Amusingly if you turn off the watch history then the frontpage passive aggressively refuses to show you anything, rather than…

I finally turned on the watch history because the suggestions without it were so far out. It used to be that you'd watch a video or two and then suggestions would get really good, even without history being enabled but at some point it switched to just recommending popular junk instead of trying to curate things based on the last couple of videos you'd watch.

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

#85

Post by crazygringo »

kiicia wrote: post #78
crazygringo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely -- this seriously seems like it should have been fixed years ago. And it's not like you need fancy AI to do it. Just a handful of simple heuristics.

It was already working years ago and they deliberately broke it

Are you sure? I've been watching YouTube basically since it launched and I don't ever remember it consistently getting that right.

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

#86

Post by crtasm »

justforasingle wrote: post #57
frfl wrote: 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.

That seems unusual, post some examples?

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

#87

Post by BlueTemplar »

justforasingle wrote: post #57
frfl wrote: 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.

Welp, it's way past time I backed up my favourite videos. Thanks for the warning.

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

#88

Post by stairlane »

colmvp wrote: post #11

YT search results also show results that have literally nothing to do with the query. Stop showing me videos I watched previously when I'm literally in the midst of trying to find something specific.

This 100%. It’s so infuriating trying to browse search results but not even halfway down the page it just assumes that I have the attention span of a goldfish and that I would rather look at their list of recommendations for videos to watch that have absolutely nothing to do with my search query.

Good grief the people in charge of YouTube and Google have put their products in complete free fall because that’s the only way they can see a non-zero velocity.

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

#89

Post by winkelmann »

mxmilkiib wrote: post #71
frfl wrote: 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.

Also, 'sort by upload date' kills all the non directly keyword related results.

You can also do before:2030 (or some other date in the future). It shouldn't change the results except removing the "recommended" garbage. It's crazy how much more usable it becomes. You could probably write a Userscript or something to automatically add it to every query.

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

#90

Post by phendrenad2 »

doublerabbit wrote: post #75
phendrenad2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure it's afraid but more the resources required to make it successful. Bandwidth isn't cheap, storage is a bucket load and than moderation & copyright. Let alone any other issues.

Depends on what your goal is. If you're trying to make a competitor to YouTube's original idea, bandwidth and storage are likely distant concerns, and copyright isn't a hard problem (because you can just accept DMCA requests like the rest of the world, you don't need to replicate contentID).

If you want Despacito and the Baby Shark Dance to be your top videos, it gets a lot harder.

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