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YouTube's recommendations are arguably just as good as TikTok's in my opinion. The only difference is that YouTube places the burden of choice on you while TikT

by Drew_ 6y ago

YouTube's recommendations are arguably just as good as TikTok's in my opinion. The only difference is that YouTube places the burden of choice on you while TikTok makes every choice for you. If you don't quickly find something you'd like to watch on YouTube you're very likely to leave and find something else to entertain you. Meanwhile TikTok is automatically feeding you an infinite source of quick and easy to digest content, all of which you'll probably like to some degree. YouTube could do something similar and give users an automatic continuous feed (ala a TV channel), but I think YouTube's content is much too longform to work well in this format. This burden of choice problem affects Netflix in the same way which also has superb recommendations.

thekyle 6y ago
I also agree that YouTube's recommendations are pretty good. For example, I like to watch Linux distro reviews which are fairly niche and usually only get a few hundred views but my YouTube homepage is filled with them. In contrast, when I was testing out TikTok it mostly recommended me things with broad appeal like comedy skits and generic science videos that I think 90%+ of the population would find at least somewhat enjoyable.
- taejo 6y ago
  > I also agree that YouTube's recommendations are pretty good. For example, I like to watch Linux distro reviews which are fairly niche and usually only get a few hundred views but my YouTube homepage is filled with them This is exactly its main weakness. Once it finds one or two things you like, you're hardly ever going to see anything diversity, and if you ever do, it won't be long before that thing completely fills your feed. I have two Google accounts, and I switch between them for non-YouTube-related reasons. The one is currently all Periodic Videos all the time, the other is all History Matters all the time. It's not as if I lose all interest in chemistry if I switch accounts. If I have a few minutes to kill, I'll end up thinking "History Matters isn't exactly what I want to watch, but I don't want to spend ten minutes trying to find something else", so I watch it, and the algorithm pats itself on the back and cues up another one of the same.

by Drew_ 6y ago

thekyle 6y ago

I also agree that YouTube's recommendations are pretty good. For example, I like to watch Linux distro reviews which are fairly niche and usually only get a few hundred views but my YouTube homepage is filled with them. In contrast, when I was testing out TikTok it mostly recommended me things with broad appeal like comedy skits and generic science videos that I think 90%+ of the population would find at least somewhat enjoyable.

taejo 6y ago
> I also agree that YouTube's recommendations are pretty good. For example, I like to watch Linux distro reviews which are fairly niche and usually only get a few hundred views but my YouTube homepage is filled with them This is exactly its main weakness. Once it finds one or two things you like, you're hardly ever going to see anything diversity, and if you ever do, it won't be long before that thing completely fills your feed. I have two Google accounts, and I switch between them for non-YouTube-related reasons. The one is currently all Periodic Videos all the time, the other is all History Matters all the time. It's not as if I lose all interest in chemistry if I switch accounts. If I have a few minutes to kill, I'll end up thinking "History Matters isn't exactly what I want to watch, but I don't want to spend ten minutes trying to find something else", so I watch it, and the algorithm pats itself on the back and cues up another one of the same.