Some like me actually appreciate the youtube recomendations based on the previously watched content, but need to be extra careful when watching some kind of content that is likely to be weighted a lot by "power users". Example, I do not follow videogames, but I do enjoy watching speedruns of old games ocassionally, so I need to watch it on incognito mode so I won't have my recommendations flooded with videogame videos.
I'm currently unaware of any recommendation engine that's worth acknowledging.
Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, PornHub, etc... they're all accomplishing little more than "similar to the one, and only one item you last saw", with dramatic shifts in "profiling" from one or two videos.
Actually, Netflix acknowledges this and splits the recommendation into "because you watched X..", so at least it covers a greater range (eg last 5 things seen)
I'm damned sure they could be much more useful if they would let me tell them what I like, by implementing rating systems that are worth using (e.g. the ability to browse and edit previous ratings in a sane fashion)
but user-useful recommendation is not the actual goal, so really its just that our metrics are wrong. It's probably great according to view counts.
On this subject, clicking through to some of these videos in incognito gave me what I guess must be the "default" suggestions - which included not just beauty tips spam but far-right speakers and loyalist marches in Belfast. I'm guessing the latter is related to the date but it's not something I'd expect to be the default! Watching even one video then made it more normal, even when trying to generate recommendations based on the no view videos.
Because a lot of people care of recommendations? If you watch news on yt then maybe recommendations are garbage but if you watch videos related to some niche activity or music then recommendations are a godsend.
Oh, you think you can actually disable it? its just an UI setting, Google keeps tracking you anyway. Go ahead and try it, disabling does nothing to the recommendations.
Others are suggesting practical reasons for having watch history enabled, but I would think that the vast majority have it enabled simply because that is the default.
history augments memory when searching for specific things one remembers. having it polluted by random videos embedded on third party might not be great. history also drives recommendations, so again having random video views will ruin coherence of the home page suggestions
Some like me actually appreciate the youtube recomendations based on the previously watched content, but need to be extra careful when watching some kind of content that is likely to be weighted a lot by "power users". Example, I do not follow videogames, but I do enjoy watching speedruns of old games ocassionally, so I need to watch it on incognito mode so I won't have my recommendations flooded with videogame videos.
Ever seen Summoning Salt’s documentary videos? https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCtUbO6rBht0daVIOGML3c8w
Firefox containers are also a great way to manage the yt recommend list. (Just choose a different container and open the link in that)
Essentially with all that data, YouTube still hold a bad recommendation engine.
I'm currently unaware of any recommendation engine that's worth acknowledging.
Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, PornHub, etc... they're all accomplishing little more than "similar to the one, and only one item you last saw", with dramatic shifts in "profiling" from one or two videos.
Actually, Netflix acknowledges this and splits the recommendation into "because you watched X..", so at least it covers a greater range (eg last 5 things seen)
I'm damned sure they could be much more useful if they would let me tell them what I like, by implementing rating systems that are worth using (e.g. the ability to browse and edit previous ratings in a sane fashion)
but user-useful recommendation is not the actual goal, so really its just that our metrics are wrong. It's probably great according to view counts.
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On this subject, clicking through to some of these videos in incognito gave me what I guess must be the "default" suggestions - which included not just beauty tips spam but far-right speakers and loyalist marches in Belfast. I'm guessing the latter is related to the date but it's not something I'd expect to be the default! Watching even one video then made it more normal, even when trying to generate recommendations based on the no view videos.
I find that it's pretty good.
Or potentially the recommendations are tuned more towards ad revenue than your personal interests?
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I like YouTube's recommendation engine, it is the only good one I've used.
I disagree from my own experience.
I always watch youtube from a privacy window so most suggestions are related to what I'm searching at the time.
Because a lot of people care of recommendations? If you watch news on yt then maybe recommendations are garbage but if you watch videos related to some niche activity or music then recommendations are a godsend.
Because they want useful recommendations and astronaut is feeding Google bad data?
Oh, you think you can actually disable it? its just an UI setting, Google keeps tracking you anyway. Go ahead and try it, disabling does nothing to the recommendations.
Others are suggesting practical reasons for having watch history enabled, but I would think that the vast majority have it enabled simply because that is the default.
In the same way that most people have a nose because they're born with it. It also happens to be useful.
reaching af
history augments memory when searching for specific things one remembers. having it polluted by random videos embedded on third party might not be great. history also drives recommendations, so again having random video views will ruin coherence of the home page suggestions