Likes from logged in views do count, the like to view ratio is higher due to that.
A German YouTuber tested it with an unlisted video, I can’t find it as of now but I do find a lot of deleted videos in my liked ones…
Basic theory as of the time of the video is that they want to go against bot views. Short views did not decline, only long form video, and of those the people with mostly desktop views are hit the most.
Edit: found it!
I don’t understand how anyone used YouTube anymore. I’m not going to spend 5 minutes solving a captcha every time I want to watch a 2 minute video.
just heads up if you’re getting captchas on YT you’ll probably start getting those on other Google services over time too.
it snowballs like this: YouTube decides you’re a bot => you use less YouTube => Google/Alphabet gets less information/fingerprints of you => Google Search decides you’re a bot => you switch to a different search engine => Google Maps decides you’re a robot …
I’ve literally never had to do that? And with uBlock Origin I don’t see ads at all.
I’ve literally never seen a captcha on YouTube
Edit: Also, I generally watch 30+ minute YouTube videos from people I’m specifically subscribed to
That’s because you’re logged into an account. And they track and make money from you