Dunno, but I’ve noticed this too, last few months. Maybe they’re trying to respond to criticisms that the algorithm hurts small creators by sprinkling in random videos with low view counts?

Google stripping out the copper wiring to sell for scrap

I can’t get over the “Recommended for you” videos they put in the middle of search results. No, fuck you, that’s not what I searched for!

I’ve heard that they’re threatened enough by tiktok (or at least trying to copy tiktok) to the point that they’re copying tiktok’s feature of boosting a new creator’s videos to draw those users in to using their app more

I know YT introduced some feature that was meant to give a bump to low-view, low-follower count channels as a ‘community service’ kinda “Oh look how we’re helping small aspiring content creators” kind of thing. Usually one sub-1000 view video per refresh of the home page. But they are never relevant so idk what’s the point. Not even a pity click from me. Fuck yt

Yeah, it’s pretty dogshit.

If I knew how to code or I could bankroll something for this, I would definitely create a platform-agnostic frontend for sites like YouTube to create a feed that blends different sources and which is customisable.

It probably sounds a bit daft or a bit unnecessary but I think that a large part of how sites like YouTube maintain their monopoly in a legitimate sense, as well as holding a monopoly on people’s attention, is that their feeds are soft-locked into their platform and people are passive consumers which are subject to the feed.

Imo part of why R*ddit was so successful was that it created a blended feed which was customisable - you can go to different subreddits based on a category or theme and you’d get recommendations from across a variety of platforms.

My idea would be similar to that - you would be able to create multiple categories for feeds (for example theory, entertainment, news) and within each category you’d be able to tell the feed to recommend content in a randomised way that you could peruse until you find something that takes your interest. Basically like an RSS feed but with a bit of window-dressing on top.

So say you work a manual labour job or you’re a trucker or something like that. Maybe you have an “audio” feed and you put in some podcasts, some audiobooks, and some lectures to listen to while you’re on shift.

Or maybe you’re just in the mood for watching a TV series or a movie because you’re relaxing at home and you want to switch off for a while, so you have an entertainment feed which you have added to over time with the things that you’ve been wanting to watch.

Or maybe you’re on public transport and you don’t have your headphones so you go into your short-form reading feed and it suggests any articles from sites that you are “subscribed” to as well as those articles which you added in manually because you wanted to read them but you didn’t have time when you came across them so you saved them for later in this program.

The idea is classic techbro-tier “I didn’t invent anything new, I just slapped two preexisting things together and now I’m on the cutting edge and I’m a disruptor” fodder but I do think that it would help make people into more active participants in the media they consume and if it’s easy to add subscriptions to different platforms then it would mean that YouTube or Netflix or whatever wouldn’t be a person’s immediate go-to.

Meanwhile there’s a genocide taking place in Gaza and flowers are blooming in the Antarctic.

Yeah, I miss the “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS SJW With FACTS and LOGIC Compilation #4,685,173” recommendations.

Not really into anything else.

I love that I put on a white noise video to help me sleep and now my feed is 80% white noise videos

No matter how many times I report, them I’m getting medical misinformation ads for peroxide and rubbing alcohol that claim to make my pp hard in 9 seconds.

I keep getting recommended videos of a middle aged guy playing Hungarian Minor guitar solos on a First Act guitar, holding a cigarette in his mouth the whole time (indoors). He’s actually pretty good and I keep watching it.

They’ve been fucking around with the algos, so less MrBeast making that weird face and more rando creators. I keep getting people opening their new phones, scammy gurus offering generic life advice in half English half Hindi/Tamril, also lots of Russel Brand, like non stop idk who/what I pissed off but plz no more clipped Russel Brand sound bites, thanks. Nothing like looking for music, how to fix my pos car, maybe a recipe, and bam, Russel Brand’s unwarranted philosophical horseshittery gonna fix my last century shitbox.

If I watch one video about a particular car, for the next week it’s just dumping more videos of that type of car at me. I’m dumb enough to encourage it though so sure I’ll watch another video of a guy dyno tuning a thirty year old grand Marquis, why not

Have you clicked on any YouTube links with trackers attached after the “?” in the link? I clicked on a bunch posted in here and Reddit as part of an experiment, and it messed up my recommendations for weeks.

I get recommendations for Maddy McCann conspiracy channels.

youtube actually does pretty well for my recommendations except every now and then it will notice i watch a few retro gaming channels and try a whole bunch of small crappy retro gaming channels out thinking i’ll like them.

i watch the ones i watch because i already like them. i think i have got a channel or two i actually ended up liking but youtube doesn’t have a way to fix on the vibe of the channels i like instead of the broad subject. just because i keep up on Jeremy Parish doesn’t mean i want to watch fucking top hat gaming man, his channel is utter shit. get the fuck outta here.

iirc long culture/media video essay channels were even worse, not so bad as i haven’t watched much of that for years. but youtube definitely thought for a while that if you watch an hbomberguy video than you are DEFINITELY going to want to watch every quinton reviews 9 hour video about nickelodeon sitcoms from the aughts.

edit: the worst thing about the front page algorithm is that it just doesn’t give up on showing you mostly the same videos. like if i saw it 5 times and never clicked on it just get it out of here

edit2: out of cultural sensitivity i should not have said top hat gaming man is utter shit. i should have said he’s “a bit crap”