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Tiktok does many things well but making videos easy to find is not one of them. It’s a miracle for discovery of new content, but a menace for ever being able to
by reilly3000 5y ago
Tiktok does many things well but making videos easy to find is not one of them. It’s a miracle for discovery of new content, but a menace for ever being able to find it again. Video search is hard, but they really aren’t trying- they would rather you have to hit the like button on every video you might want to see again. The problem is that the likes list is also not searchable or filterable. The only way I was able to find a video I really wanted to share with somebody was to request a data export, wait 2-3 days, then run through a long CSV of my whole watch history to locate it. It’s pretty clear that they transcribe all of the content for internal use only-moderation and analytics at least; I wish they could use that for search as well.
- ehnto 5y agoI don't think discovery is what TikTok offers either but admittedly I have only seen it in action third hand. How often do you see things that are truly novel to your interests? My impression was that it's no different to other feed based apps in that it hones in on a few topics and you end up in a pretty narrow content bubble.
- reilly3000 5y agoThat is where it really stands apart- while it can get hyper-specific, its consistently mixing novel content types. Some has appeal based on a look-alike type of matching, others to general appeal, and more still to new and small creators. Once it has a sense that you're in a session you're not likely to abandon it takes greater risks on trying fringe content. Let me put it this way: give it a solid 2 weeks and you'll start discovering new parts of yourself.