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Quoting astrocat from the previous thread: PSA: Watch in an private/incognito tab/window. If you are currently logged into your google account, this WILL pollu

by chias 7y ago

Quoting astrocat from the previous thread: PSA: Watch in an private/incognito tab/window. If you are currently logged into your google account, this WILL pollute your watched history: https://www.youtube.com/feed/history https://www.youtube.com/feed/history

dragonwriter 7y ago
Or, just pause viewing history; YouTube has a control for that.
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  Will that pause recommendations and everything else with the already weak algo?
  - judge2020 7y ago
    they probably log a 'shadow view' but recommendations seem to be directly based on your watch history since your recommendations are lost when you completely clear it.
    - pteraspidomorph 7y ago
      That is a bit odd because I have had watch history off for years, but I still get recommendations that make sense.
      - jdietrich 7y ago
        Do you subscribe to any channels? Have you liked any videos?
        pteraspidomorph 7y ago
        Ah, yes, I have liked some videos throughout the years.
  - narcoleptic 7y ago
    The recommendations will mostly be derived from the videos you have saved in playlists. And the front page will always shows Youtube Mixes about the last song you were listening to, at the time of turning off the watch history.
    - skinnymuch 7y ago
      Do a significant amt of YouTube users use playlists? I’ve always assumed no. Unless perhaps they are doing it for music since you’re talking about YouTube Mix. And songs.
human20190310 7y ago
Why would someone who is concerned about their watch history have watch history enabled at all?
- dhruvrrp 7y ago
  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.
- solidasparagus 7y ago
  Because they want useful recommendations and astronaut is feeding Google bad data?
- licebmi__at__ 7y ago
  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.
  - gryffin 7y ago
    Essentially with all that data, YouTube still hold a bad recommendation engine.
    - NegativeLatency 7y ago
      Or potentially the recommendations are tuned more towards ad revenue than your personal interests?
      - JoshTriplett 7y ago
        Which from the user's perspective may be equivalent to "bad recommendation engine".
yaleman 7y ago
Turns out, even before you click on "OK" to start watching, it's doing it in the background - my watch history is now full of hours of this junk :(
- ehsankia 7y ago
  You can click X on them and quickly remove them. If there's truly way too many (you left it open for hours), you can go to your Google's Activity page, filter youtube and delete everything from today with a button.
  - hombre_fatal 7y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/feed/history https://www.youtube.com/feed/history Good idea to do a full reset periodically anyways to reset your recommendations.
    - gregmac 7y ago
      Is it? When I go to YouTube on a fresh device without being logged in, it's a pile of steaming clickbait and pop-internet-culture garbage. On my account, by contrast, YouTube is full of mostly great recommendations of high-quality content and I can pretty much always find several new and interesting things to watch should I feel like it. (I watch stuff like Kurzgesagt, Smarter every day, AvE, Rick Beato, Today I found out, Wisecrack, Wendover Productions, Practical Engineering, Vox, Crash Course, SciShow... that's just from browsing my current recommendations. I would guess none of that shows up for fresh accounts)
      - ignaloidas 7y ago
        Clean it of trash and you will receive less trash recommendations. Fully cleaning isn't effective as the average video quality is lower than most HN public would like to watch. Having mostly good videos you like makes it recommend more similar content to you.
        7y ago
Causality1 7y ago
I wish you hadn't told me that. I thought I saw something suspicious when I resumed switching and yep, that's a bunch of topless elementary schoolers at a pool party. I suppose it doesn't technically violate YouTube's policies but jesus I did not want to see that.
- throwaway53247 7y ago
  Why not? Pedophilia is not a communicable disease.
amarshall 7y ago
Also consider using Firefox and enabling `privacy.firstparty.isolate`, which will separate the cookies for third-party embeds from their own domain, thereby preventing this (as the embed doesn’t see you as logged-in).
vcanales 7y ago
Interesting, it didn't add anything to my watch history on Safari; is this a browser thing?

by chias 7y ago

dragonwriter 7y ago

Or, just pause viewing history; YouTube has a control for that.

skinnymuch 7y ago
Will that pause recommendations and everything else with the already weak algo?
- judge2020 7y ago
  they probably log a 'shadow view' but recommendations seem to be directly based on your watch history since your recommendations are lost when you completely clear it.
  - pteraspidomorph 7y ago
    That is a bit odd because I have had watch history off for years, but I still get recommendations that make sense.
    - jdietrich 7y ago
      Do you subscribe to any channels? Have you liked any videos?
      - pteraspidomorph 7y ago
        Ah, yes, I have liked some videos throughout the years.
- narcoleptic 7y ago
  The recommendations will mostly be derived from the videos you have saved in playlists. And the front page will always shows Youtube Mixes about the last song you were listening to, at the time of turning off the watch history.
  - skinnymuch 7y ago
    Do a significant amt of YouTube users use playlists? I’ve always assumed no. Unless perhaps they are doing it for music since you’re talking about YouTube Mix. And songs.

human20190310 7y ago

Why would someone who is concerned about their watch history have watch history enabled at all?

dhruvrrp 7y ago
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.
solidasparagus 7y ago
Because they want useful recommendations and astronaut is feeding Google bad data?
licebmi__at__ 7y ago
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.
- gryffin 7y ago
  Essentially with all that data, YouTube still hold a bad recommendation engine.
  - NegativeLatency 7y ago
    Or potentially the recommendations are tuned more towards ad revenue than your personal interests?
    - JoshTriplett 7y ago
      Which from the user's perspective may be equivalent to "bad recommendation engine".

yaleman 7y ago

Turns out, even before you click on "OK" to start watching, it's doing it in the background - my watch history is now full of hours of this junk :(

ehsankia 7y ago
You can click X on them and quickly remove them. If there's truly way too many (you left it open for hours), you can go to your Google's Activity page, filter youtube and delete everything from today with a button.
- hombre_fatal 7y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/feed/history https://www.youtube.com/feed/history Good idea to do a full reset periodically anyways to reset your recommendations.
  - gregmac 7y ago
    Is it? When I go to YouTube on a fresh device without being logged in, it's a pile of steaming clickbait and pop-internet-culture garbage. On my account, by contrast, YouTube is full of mostly great recommendations of high-quality content and I can pretty much always find several new and interesting things to watch should I feel like it. (I watch stuff like Kurzgesagt, Smarter every day, AvE, Rick Beato, Today I found out, Wisecrack, Wendover Productions, Practical Engineering, Vox, Crash Course, SciShow... that's just from browsing my current recommendations. I would guess none of that shows up for fresh accounts)
    - ignaloidas 7y ago
      Clean it of trash and you will receive less trash recommendations. Fully cleaning isn't effective as the average video quality is lower than most HN public would like to watch. Having mostly good videos you like makes it recommend more similar content to you.
      - 7y ago

Causality1 7y ago

I wish you hadn't told me that. I thought I saw something suspicious when I resumed switching and yep, that's a bunch of topless elementary schoolers at a pool party. I suppose it doesn't technically violate YouTube's policies but jesus I did not want to see that.

throwaway53247 7y ago
Why not? Pedophilia is not a communicable disease.

amarshall 7y ago

Also consider using Firefox and enabling `privacy.firstparty.isolate`, which will separate the cookies for third-party embeds from their own domain, thereby preventing this (as the embed doesn’t see you as logged-in).

vcanales 7y ago

Interesting, it didn't add anything to my watch history on Safari; is this a browser thing?