4 ms·

Eh, every time I open YouTube, it recommends me 'Shorts', which are nothing but young women in scant dress doing something called a shuffle dance, all with 10s

Eh, every time I open YouTube, it recommends me 'Shorts', which are nothing but young women in scant dress doing something called a shuffle dance, all with 10s of millions of views. Not sure if TikTok started this crap, but as an old married man, I would have thought Google would have known better. I'd rather watch someone shape and sand wood at this point.

Dma54rhs 4y ago
TikTok algo most certainly does give you that if you're willing to skip the dancing videos or softcore porn. It's creepy but very effective, at least for me.
411111111111111 4y ago
I've not had a single YouTube short of that type despite using it way too much at times. It's mostly gaming related and meme videos in my feet, I've never found a way to significantly spice things up sadly so it's really quiet boring most of the time
- LukeShu 4y ago
  On non-logged-in/no-history YouTube (e.g. a new private browsing window), there'll usually be 1-3 such shorts in the shelf on the homepage. Logged in, I think it's tried to show me such a video just once, after I'd been scrolling for way too long. I hit 'dislike' and it hasn't tried again.
- candiodari 4y ago
  Ok, similar here. Normally I get crafts, programming/development and science stuff, and then I look at Youtube in incognito mode. It pushes shorts like crazy, and they're all young women/girls trying on outfits, shuffle dancing, or announcing their minutest feelings in a closeup of well uh, not just their faces, yet filmed very close ... And if you go to a mcdonalds, open safari (which I never use) and look, it's 10x worse. The girls (and some sports) is the default thing youtube shows.
- moonchrome 4y ago
  Try it with incognito on a VPN - I forgot I was on it and went to YouTube (usually logged in because of premium) - literally video suggestions like 10 hottest pornstars from X, thirst traps, "are you smart enough to figure this out" and similar crap. Without VPN I get a bunch of regional crap music and stuff.
jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
I've been watching shorts a bit because I'm curious about the algorithm and also I don't wanna install tiktok and some of those vids are legit quite amusing. Most of what it suggests is inline with my youtube subscriptions, but it does consistently push two things I'm totally disinterested in: Andrew Tate interview clips and some weird spam channel that's just videos of attractive female athletes. Nothing I do in the UX to say "stop showing me these" seems to matter.
jasmer 4y ago
It's as old as time, but TikTok/Musicaly was the first modern entity to use that as an entry point. The app is a 'fun dance app' where kids would do meme-dances for each other. That's naturally adjacent to the 'thirst trap' content - either by design or by fruition, either way they went full in. To be fair, the alg will move away from that quickly (or at least it did) if yo don't linger. My feed moved onto cat rescue, farm life, cute kids and really arcane bits of knowledge impressively quickly. I'm not sour on TikTok - I've discovered interests I never knew I had and there is something to be said for it. And it's not 'directly toxic' like Twitter etc..
- x86_64Ubuntu 4y ago
  Everytime TikTok and it's algo pop up on HN, people can't help but tell on themselves.
  - silisili 4y ago
    Unsure if you're referring to me, but I assure you it's not the case. I've never even watched shorts! I rarely use YouTube, mainly for tool reviews and an occasional song. When I open the app, I get one suggested video, then a strip of shorts. Here's a screenshot: https://i.postimg.cc/HLG4tFKF/Screenshot-20221217-232808-You-Tube.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/HLG4tFKF/Screenshot-20221217-232808-You...
    - O__________O 4y ago
      You don’t have to watch shorts to get recommended shorts based on a Google profile which includes content-viewing, searches, etc — and may or may not be based on a device, user-login, IP, region, persona-profile, etc. Basically, regardless if the recommendation was valid, there’s a reason content that niche was suggested.
shp0ngle 4y ago
This is explicitly YouTube trying to ape TikTok. TikTok started this.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
runnerup 4y ago
> I’d rather watch someone shape and sand wood at this point. https://youtube.com/@WoodworkingDIY https://youtube.com/@WoodworkingDIY
O__________O 4y ago
>> every time I open YouTube Never seen anything like that, guessing Google has filtered content based on past views and tied it to browser cookies, device fingerprints, IP, etc. This does not even have to be your viewing history, could be someone else on same IP and if you even click a video once it gets amplified and paired to the prior profile that produced that recommendation.
- iamacyborg 4y ago
  Why even assume personalisation like this when it's more likely just demographic based personalisation?
  - O__________O 4y ago
    Not assuming anything related to what triggered the personalization, put it for sure is personalization and key is to understand how to feed YouTube so it recommends content you want. For example, if a friend sends you a video that you’re going to watch because they’re your friend, but you’re not actually interested — do not view it in a way that’s easily tied to your name profile.

Dma54rhs 4y ago

TikTok algo most certainly does give you that if you're willing to skip the dancing videos or softcore porn. It's creepy but very effective, at least for me.

411111111111111 4y ago

I've not had a single YouTube short of that type despite using it way too much at times. It's mostly gaming related and meme videos in my feet, I've never found a way to significantly spice things up sadly so it's really quiet boring most of the time

LukeShu 4y ago
On non-logged-in/no-history YouTube (e.g. a new private browsing window), there'll usually be 1-3 such shorts in the shelf on the homepage. Logged in, I think it's tried to show me such a video just once, after I'd been scrolling for way too long. I hit 'dislike' and it hasn't tried again.
candiodari 4y ago
Ok, similar here. Normally I get crafts, programming/development and science stuff, and then I look at Youtube in incognito mode. It pushes shorts like crazy, and they're all young women/girls trying on outfits, shuffle dancing, or announcing their minutest feelings in a closeup of well uh, not just their faces, yet filmed very close ... And if you go to a mcdonalds, open safari (which I never use) and look, it's 10x worse. The girls (and some sports) is the default thing youtube shows.
moonchrome 4y ago
Try it with incognito on a VPN - I forgot I was on it and went to YouTube (usually logged in because of premium) - literally video suggestions like 10 hottest pornstars from X, thirst traps, "are you smart enough to figure this out" and similar crap. Without VPN I get a bunch of regional crap music and stuff.

jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago

I've been watching shorts a bit because I'm curious about the algorithm and also I don't wanna install tiktok and some of those vids are legit quite amusing. Most of what it suggests is inline with my youtube subscriptions, but it does consistently push two things I'm totally disinterested in: Andrew Tate interview clips and some weird spam channel that's just videos of attractive female athletes. Nothing I do in the UX to say "stop showing me these" seems to matter.

jasmer 4y ago

It's as old as time, but TikTok/Musicaly was the first modern entity to use that as an entry point. The app is a 'fun dance app' where kids would do meme-dances for each other. That's naturally adjacent to the 'thirst trap' content - either by design or by fruition, either way they went full in. To be fair, the alg will move away from that quickly (or at least it did) if yo don't linger. My feed moved onto cat rescue, farm life, cute kids and really arcane bits of knowledge impressively quickly. I'm not sour on TikTok - I've discovered interests I never knew I had and there is something to be said for it. And it's not 'directly toxic' like Twitter etc..

x86_64Ubuntu 4y ago
Everytime TikTok and it's algo pop up on HN, people can't help but tell on themselves.
- silisili 4y ago
  Unsure if you're referring to me, but I assure you it's not the case. I've never even watched shorts! I rarely use YouTube, mainly for tool reviews and an occasional song. When I open the app, I get one suggested video, then a strip of shorts. Here's a screenshot: https://i.postimg.cc/HLG4tFKF/Screenshot-20221217-232808-You-Tube.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/HLG4tFKF/Screenshot-20221217-232808-You...
  - O__________O 4y ago
    You don’t have to watch shorts to get recommended shorts based on a Google profile which includes content-viewing, searches, etc — and may or may not be based on a device, user-login, IP, region, persona-profile, etc. Basically, regardless if the recommendation was valid, there’s a reason content that niche was suggested.

shp0ngle 4y ago

This is explicitly YouTube trying to ape TikTok. TikTok started this.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

runnerup 4y ago

> I’d rather watch someone shape and sand wood at this point. https://youtube.com/@WoodworkingDIY https://youtube.com/@WoodworkingDIY

O__________O 4y ago

>> every time I open YouTube Never seen anything like that, guessing Google has filtered content based on past views and tied it to browser cookies, device fingerprints, IP, etc. This does not even have to be your viewing history, could be someone else on same IP and if you even click a video once it gets amplified and paired to the prior profile that produced that recommendation.

iamacyborg 4y ago
Why even assume personalisation like this when it's more likely just demographic based personalisation?
- O__________O 4y ago
  Not assuming anything related to what triggered the personalization, put it for sure is personalization and key is to understand how to feed YouTube so it recommends content you want. For example, if a friend sends you a video that you’re going to watch because they’re your friend, but you’re not actually interested — do not view it in a way that’s easily tied to your name profile.