| General > General Technical Chat |
| Is YouTube's video recommendation algorithm completely borked? |
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| wilfred:
If you turn history off and are logged in you'll get a blank page with a notice reminding you history is turned off. If you're not logged in you get a screen of recommendations presumably similar or the same as that everyone else not logged in gets. And that is only good for curiosity clicks which I sometimes do. Hence I log in with history turned off. I also added some filters to U-block that stops any visibility to the existence of Shorts. The only downside to invisible shorts, aside from embarrassment when out in public, is a channel pops to the top of my subscription list with a new content dot and I don't know it isn't a new video without looking. As for the algorithm you need to keep in mind Youtube tune it to maximise overall ad revenue. You can assume it works for that purpose and only that purpose. Hence, they added the blank screen and history-off notice for me because they want me to turn history on and improve the algorithm's hit rate for me. Although why they introduced this "incentive" for me to enable history in preference to taking their chances with generic recommendations like they formerly did I don't understand. I don't think the algorithm is close to perfecting recommendations individually targeted to each viewer. And I also think the most weight is given to clicks on ads so if you block ads then you're muddying the waters as far as well targeted video recommendations. Not sure why I think that because I really don't want to dwell on the Youtube algorithm that much. It changes so frequently I just go with the flow and continue with trying to wean myself of the COVID lockdown induced habits I developed. I've probably halved my weekly YT viewing in the last 6 months. |
| Halcyon:
--- Quote from: edpalmer42 on February 03, 2024, 04:04:29 am ---Other than being able to comment or like, is there any reason to be logged in? --- End quote --- Because I mostly go straight to my "Subscriptions" feed and I'm also subscribed to Premium. I'm honestly at the stage where I'm thinking of cancelling my YouTube Premium subscription anyway. The main driving force behind it initially was because I was eligible for a student discount and I got sick of all the ads (I know there are ways to block those). But now, so many content creators (even the ones I love) are inserting ads into their content through sponsorships. There's a small handful of channels where I just download the videos (which doesn't rely on Premium) and store them locally for later viewing, maybe I'll just expand on that instead of using YouTubes site/application. |
| DiTBho:
--- Quote from: BrianHG on February 03, 2024, 03:46:12 am ---Warning, if you hover your mouse over videos you don't intend to watch, but they begin to play in their thumbnail, youtube now considers those videos watched and updates your recommendations accordingly. --- End quote --- mysterious mysteries ... weeks ago, with no searching key in mind but something Cyberpunk that somehow looks like "Molly Millions", a recurring character in the William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, a recurring key sequence like a fixed nail in Youtube cache, but it went nut as I was suggested to watch "Milla Jovovich", in a video where she tells the story nehind "The Fifth Element" Costume | Vogue W___T___F___? - what is that? some kind of super secret sub-message hidden among the links? let's investigate - I thought when I instinctively found myself hovering over two videos that I don't intend to watch, perhaps because I cannot resist to Ukrainian Girls (her mother is) So, yeah, Mila, always delicious to see, but WTF? Ghost in the Shell (2017 ), which is *somehow* a Cyberpunk movie, stars "Scarlett Johansson" and not "Milla Jovovich". So, that's definitively not the kind of things I have been looking in the last two weeks! Especially today I need something for my scripts, I do feel I am in the good vibes to write something ... perhaps good enough for Youtube, who knows, somedays for Netflix, too ... In time to avoid clicking, too late to avoid the consequences: Poppi's videos appears :o :o :o :o Who? *IS*? that? girl? (thank goodness she doesn't make pop songs) |
| magic:
--- Quote from: IanB on February 03, 2024, 04:14:19 am ---Their analytics probably show that making all sorts of unrelated recommendations generates "curiosity clicks", and that it increases views to do so. --- End quote --- That would be my first guess. They calculated that more people end up clicking cat videos than quitting YouTube due to cat video recommendations. Particularly if you are already balls deep in the system and browsing logged in. They only fear pissing off new users, who are still a risk of walking away at any time. Addicts are the cash cows to milk. Or they are trying to deradicalize you and expand your horizons because some SJW somewhere said something about recommendation engines reinforcing online echo chambers. Though if you think about how and why such concerned individuals suddenly became prominent in the media, you can't help but go back to the former paragraph... |
| BrianHG:
--- Quote from: DiTBho on February 03, 2024, 09:56:00 am --- --- Quote from: BrianHG on February 03, 2024, 03:46:12 am ---Warning, if you hover your mouse over videos you don't intend to watch, but they begin to play in their thumbnail, youtube now considers those videos watched and updates your recommendations accordingly. --- End quote --- mysterious mysteries ... weeks ago, with no searching key in mind but something Cyberpunk that somehow looks like "Molly Millions", a recurring character in the William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, a recurring key sequence like a fixed nail in Youtube cache, but it went nut as I was suggested to watch "Milla Jovovich", in a video where she tells the story nehind "The Fifth Element" Costume | Vogue W___T___F___? - what is that? some kind of super secret sub-message hidden among the links? let's investigate - I thought when I instinctively found myself hovering over two videos that I don't intend to watch, perhaps because I cannot resist to Ukrainian Girls (her mother is) So, yeah, Mila, always delicious to see, but WTF? Ghost in the Shell (2017 ), which is *somehow* a Cyberpunk movie, stars "Scarlett Johansson" and not "Milla Jovovich". So, that's definitively not the kind of things I have been looking in the last two weeks! Especially today I need something for my scripts, I do feel I am in the good vibes to write something ... perhaps good enough for Youtube, who knows, somedays for Netflix, too ... In time to avoid clicking, too late to avoid the consequences: Poppi's videos appears :o :o :o :o Who? *IS*? that? girl? (thank goodness she doesn't make pop songs) --- End quote --- Arrrrgggg, I played your attached video. Now my recommendations are nothing but daft punk music... And for some reason cat and other animal videos... |
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