And it will never recommend you any new topic you might actually want to learn about either.
YouTube uses the same recommendation algorithm as Gmail.
“Oh you bought a mattress? You must want more mattress content and to know every time someone talks about mattresses.”
That’s Amazon too.
I see you bought a desk, so here are 5 great deals on desks!
I don’t even know why stuff appears. Recently I got a bunch of NASCAR come up. I think it’s because I follow the NLS in Germany and watched an Obama video and that mooshed motorsport and the USA into the algorithm.
I get NASCAR sometimes as well. I follow swedish speedway, and FIM Speedway GP and YouTube can’t tell them apart…
Did you know you can actually turn off your watch history, and it will stop recommending videos entirely?
I did it a while back to help stop me from refresh-addiction, and it totally works! You still get a subscription feed but it’s chronological, and it will still suggest relevant videos in the sidebar when you’re watching something.I want it to recommend some things. So I just curate my history obsessively.
It still recommends videos on the sidebar while watching other stuff. If your watching Tom Scott for example you will get a lot of relevant videos and a mix of his other vids on the side.
Me, never leaving the Subscription tab: ???
Creators often quote how few of their viewers come from subscribers. I am amazed that the vast majority of YouTube watchers just happily let YouTube decide what shit to show them.
I doubt it’s the majority of watchers, but it is the majority of time watched.
I watch an occasional half our while eating, exclusively from my subscriptions feed.
But the kind of person who just watches whatever YouTube shovels at them – they’re watching for hours and hours on end, just letting the next video autoplay every time.
I don’ think there are more braindead watchers – it’s just that the braindead watchers are the ones who watch the most.
It’s because they’re generally pretty good at showing me interesting content. Also, if you regularly watch a given creator’s videos as soon as they come out, they will be at the top of your recommend anyway.
That’s wild. I guess it’s like channel surfing, but jeez.
I click on ONE my little pony video that one time.
that’s different. you really were addicted.
Warch one breaking bad/better call saul scene, and now the whole series is in my feed.
You can delete a video from your history and it will stop the algo from doing that. But yeah, it’s a really annoying algo.
I don’t know how the algorithm is still so bad and seemingly based on like single keywords
Just watch in a private tab. If you find a channel worth following that way, then it can be promoted to “subscribed” status
wow, you watched the whole thing!
