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If you want a glimpse of the average person's youtube experience, open the site in incognito and go to the "trending" tab. It's a completely different site dep

If you want a glimpse of the average person's youtube experience, open the site in incognito and go to the "trending" tab. It's a completely different site depending on what you initially search for when you start using it. The problem is, 80% of youtube userbase never really typed a search query for anything in the first place, and as a result the stuff they get recommended and watch is pure shit.

galuggus 6y ago
I believe trending is hand curated by youtube
- CodeGlitch 6y ago
  I looked at trending once. Never again. There is great content on YouTube, but what I consider great is completely different from the next person, which is why trending makes no sense...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - lopmotr 6y ago
    I expect it's like how stamp collecting used to be the world's most popular hobby. It might not have been anybody's favorite activity, but it was commonly accessible to everyone. They call these things "lowest common denominator". If you have to pick something for everybody, that's probably a better choice than any niche group's favorite thing.
- thelastwave 6y ago
  I really hope they are not hand picking only My Best Friend and NBA videos.
crispyambulance 6y ago
We don't actually know what the "ingredients" are for recommendations. I don't think it's possible to draw conclusions from one's own experience with youtube recommendations and extrapolate it to others or to any sort of judgement about the quality of the algorithms. We are simply not privy to what, exactly, youtube is doing. I think it's wise to heed Guillaume Chaslot's warnings. In the same way that youtube exploited (inadvertently or not) glitches in the brains of preschoolers (remember "Spiderman and Heidi" videos? if not, don't look it up). There's reason to believe these things can fly under our radar and influence adults in ways that are not perceptible and not something we would approve of in advance.
- vizzier 6y ago
  The stuff is what the stuff is brother. [1] [1] https://youtu.be/ajGX7odA87k?t=945 https://youtu.be/ajGX7odA87k?t=945
  - cratermoon 6y ago
    That's an amazing talk and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. Congratulations, you beat YouTube's recommendations for me. BTW I was already aware of all the questionable things AI is used for, but Mickens' analysis is beautiful.
  - fao_ 6y ago
    Holy shit, this talk is amazing. Thank you!!
troebr 6y ago
It wasn't that bad. Some influencer videos, music, prank videos, sports, a couple niche youtubers, some video games. I saw a couple educational videos in there too. Sure the influencer stuff is pretty stupid, but whatever, it's not harmful.
- jw1224 6y ago
  Influencers are very often harmful. 1. Their aspirational lifestyles perpetuate feelings of inadequacy amongst their viewers, especially when their target market is often predominantly young people. Their audiences grow up with self doubt and anxiety by comparing their lives to that of the influencers they follow. 2. They are in the pockets of their advertisers and sponsors. Any recommendations they make are inherently disingenuous. 3. They’re often just really terrible people. Being the kind of attention-seeker who is able to command a large online following often seems to correlate with being a jerk. Just look at Jake and Logan Paul — two of the biggest stars of today, and both mired in controversy and bad choices.
  - wpietri 6y ago
    I'm a fan of Reddit's AmITheAsshole and I'm always stunned by the stories of teens whose life plan is to become an influencer. As a sociological phenomenon, it's fascinating: celebrity distilled down to an implausibly pure form, like Paris Hilton rendered into uncut white powder. But as somebody who feels responsibility to the kids in my extended family, it's a worry. I'm not even sure how to explain to them that it might not be the best way to spend 40 or 50 years.
    - lopmotr 6y ago
      You know what's worse than aspirations to become a celebrity? No aspirations at all. I know people like that. They just seem to see the future as a regular life with nothing particularly to do in it except exist and perform normal regular practical activities to sustain it. I can't imagine how dull it must be, but they seem to cope, and get all their excitement from immediate events. I hope you can be happy that your relatives at least have ambition, even if it's not quite accurately targeted yet. Not everyone is that fortunate.
bfieidhbrjr 6y ago
Wow I just did this. It's like turning on cable TV at a motel. (I don't watch TV at home).
- laurent92 6y ago
  Are you telling me the first recommendation engine of the world with a billion-dollars AI and 2 billion users optimizing for addiction returns the same results as cable channels whose offices look like a « Dunder Mufflin » environment, with only yearly feedback on whether customers trended upwards or downwards? Good job on the cable guys.
dspillett 6y ago
> the average person An average person, not the average person. They'll at very least target the content by country, and if you have a fixed or rarely varying IP address (which I do at home, and may public wireless APs do in my experience) they can be more fine-grained than that and give recommendations based on what people in your more local area have searched for recently. I had an Italian friend staying in my spare room for about half a year some time ago (hassles with previous landlord, took her and her fellow a while to save to the point where they could afford a place together). For many months afterwards I would get Italian language recommendations and adverts from youtube and others, even in incognito on a fresh device.
thelastwave 6y ago
> open the site in incognito and go to the "trending" tab. I just tried that and all of the top trending videos were something called "My Best Friends" followed by a long scroll of NBA videos.
- rsync 6y ago
  Yes - I had the exact same experience - lots of "best friends" content and then NBA video. I watched one of the NBA videos so, touché, youtube.
edm0nd 6y ago
The Trending videos always disappoint me. It seems like it's always some fame chasing YouTubers/people who dont deserve being on the Trending list instead of actual cool videos and content. People are gaming the algo hardcore to make tens of millions for themselves. The James Charles & Charli D'amelio entire crew of like 10 people who are always in the trending list, Soundcloud rappers, etc. Then, on the flipside, you have the YouTube algo punishing content creators and shadowbanning their videos of content YouTube doesn't like, great example of this is any of the popular firearms channels. You'll never see any of those in the Trending list despite them having millions of views. Are you a LGBTQ makeup artist rapper who gives money away and plays Minecraft? Straight to #1 Trending video for you. Dont forget the clickbait title and misleading thumbnail image. Are you producing original and awesome content? No one will ever find your video.
- pavel_lishin 6y ago
  > Charli D'amelio I have no idea who this is, but can confirm that they take up something like 50% of the screen real estate. The other half is a BBQ channel.
- oarabbus_ 6y ago
  >It seems like it's always some fame chasing YouTubers/people who dont deserve being on the Trending list instead of actual cool videos and content. What else should they be showing? How does the algorithm determine what are "cool videos and content" to someone who hasn't entered searches? It makes the most sense to put the top Youtube channels/stars on the front page, after all they are the most viewed. >Are you producing original and awesome content? No one will ever find your video. This is why TikTok has blown up; an absolute nobody can get a million views on their video overnight.
sam0x17 6y ago
Or they typed one thing 5 years ago and now YT thinks that's what you're all about
szatkus 6y ago
I have quite similar results in incognito and normal mode. Are you that the trending tab is profiled?
JJMcJ 6y ago
Watch two or three e.g. flying saucer videos, then it's saucers recommended for the next three months.

galuggus 6y ago

I believe trending is hand curated by youtube

CodeGlitch 6y ago
I looked at trending once. Never again. There is great content on YouTube, but what I consider great is completely different from the next person, which is why trending makes no sense...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- lopmotr 6y ago
  I expect it's like how stamp collecting used to be the world's most popular hobby. It might not have been anybody's favorite activity, but it was commonly accessible to everyone. They call these things "lowest common denominator". If you have to pick something for everybody, that's probably a better choice than any niche group's favorite thing.
thelastwave 6y ago
I really hope they are not hand picking only My Best Friend and NBA videos.

crispyambulance 6y ago

We don't actually know what the "ingredients" are for recommendations. I don't think it's possible to draw conclusions from one's own experience with youtube recommendations and extrapolate it to others or to any sort of judgement about the quality of the algorithms. We are simply not privy to what, exactly, youtube is doing. I think it's wise to heed Guillaume Chaslot's warnings. In the same way that youtube exploited (inadvertently or not) glitches in the brains of preschoolers (remember "Spiderman and Heidi" videos? if not, don't look it up). There's reason to believe these things can fly under our radar and influence adults in ways that are not perceptible and not something we would approve of in advance.

vizzier 6y ago
The stuff is what the stuff is brother. [1] [1] https://youtu.be/ajGX7odA87k?t=945 https://youtu.be/ajGX7odA87k?t=945
- cratermoon 6y ago
  That's an amazing talk and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. Congratulations, you beat YouTube's recommendations for me. BTW I was already aware of all the questionable things AI is used for, but Mickens' analysis is beautiful.
- fao_ 6y ago
  Holy shit, this talk is amazing. Thank you!!

troebr 6y ago

It wasn't that bad. Some influencer videos, music, prank videos, sports, a couple niche youtubers, some video games. I saw a couple educational videos in there too. Sure the influencer stuff is pretty stupid, but whatever, it's not harmful.

jw1224 6y ago
Influencers are very often harmful. 1. Their aspirational lifestyles perpetuate feelings of inadequacy amongst their viewers, especially when their target market is often predominantly young people. Their audiences grow up with self doubt and anxiety by comparing their lives to that of the influencers they follow. 2. They are in the pockets of their advertisers and sponsors. Any recommendations they make are inherently disingenuous. 3. They’re often just really terrible people. Being the kind of attention-seeker who is able to command a large online following often seems to correlate with being a jerk. Just look at Jake and Logan Paul — two of the biggest stars of today, and both mired in controversy and bad choices.
- wpietri 6y ago
  I'm a fan of Reddit's AmITheAsshole and I'm always stunned by the stories of teens whose life plan is to become an influencer. As a sociological phenomenon, it's fascinating: celebrity distilled down to an implausibly pure form, like Paris Hilton rendered into uncut white powder. But as somebody who feels responsibility to the kids in my extended family, it's a worry. I'm not even sure how to explain to them that it might not be the best way to spend 40 or 50 years.
  - lopmotr 6y ago
    You know what's worse than aspirations to become a celebrity? No aspirations at all. I know people like that. They just seem to see the future as a regular life with nothing particularly to do in it except exist and perform normal regular practical activities to sustain it. I can't imagine how dull it must be, but they seem to cope, and get all their excitement from immediate events. I hope you can be happy that your relatives at least have ambition, even if it's not quite accurately targeted yet. Not everyone is that fortunate.

bfieidhbrjr 6y ago

Wow I just did this. It's like turning on cable TV at a motel. (I don't watch TV at home).

laurent92 6y ago
Are you telling me the first recommendation engine of the world with a billion-dollars AI and 2 billion users optimizing for addiction returns the same results as cable channels whose offices look like a « Dunder Mufflin » environment, with only yearly feedback on whether customers trended upwards or downwards? Good job on the cable guys.

dspillett 6y ago

> the average person An average person, not the average person. They'll at very least target the content by country, and if you have a fixed or rarely varying IP address (which I do at home, and may public wireless APs do in my experience) they can be more fine-grained than that and give recommendations based on what people in your more local area have searched for recently. I had an Italian friend staying in my spare room for about half a year some time ago (hassles with previous landlord, took her and her fellow a while to save to the point where they could afford a place together). For many months afterwards I would get Italian language recommendations and adverts from youtube and others, even in incognito on a fresh device.

thelastwave 6y ago

> open the site in incognito and go to the "trending" tab. I just tried that and all of the top trending videos were something called "My Best Friends" followed by a long scroll of NBA videos.

rsync 6y ago
Yes - I had the exact same experience - lots of "best friends" content and then NBA video. I watched one of the NBA videos so, touché, youtube.

edm0nd 6y ago

The Trending videos always disappoint me. It seems like it's always some fame chasing YouTubers/people who dont deserve being on the Trending list instead of actual cool videos and content. People are gaming the algo hardcore to make tens of millions for themselves. The James Charles & Charli D'amelio entire crew of like 10 people who are always in the trending list, Soundcloud rappers, etc. Then, on the flipside, you have the YouTube algo punishing content creators and shadowbanning their videos of content YouTube doesn't like, great example of this is any of the popular firearms channels. You'll never see any of those in the Trending list despite them having millions of views. Are you a LGBTQ makeup artist rapper who gives money away and plays Minecraft? Straight to #1 Trending video for you. Dont forget the clickbait title and misleading thumbnail image. Are you producing original and awesome content? No one will ever find your video.

pavel_lishin 6y ago
> Charli D'amelio I have no idea who this is, but can confirm that they take up something like 50% of the screen real estate. The other half is a BBQ channel.
oarabbus_ 6y ago
>It seems like it's always some fame chasing YouTubers/people who dont deserve being on the Trending list instead of actual cool videos and content. What else should they be showing? How does the algorithm determine what are "cool videos and content" to someone who hasn't entered searches? It makes the most sense to put the top Youtube channels/stars on the front page, after all they are the most viewed. >Are you producing original and awesome content? No one will ever find your video. This is why TikTok has blown up; an absolute nobody can get a million views on their video overnight.

sam0x17 6y ago

Or they typed one thing 5 years ago and now YT thinks that's what you're all about

szatkus 6y ago

I have quite similar results in incognito and normal mode. Are you that the trending tab is profiled?

JJMcJ 6y ago

Watch two or three e.g. flying saucer videos, then it's saucers recommended for the next three months.