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Ok, work with me here… It’s incognito mode, the mode created such that it explicitly doesn’t carry over cookies from regular mode, or between sessions. What ex

Ok, work with me here… It’s incognito mode, the mode created such that it explicitly doesn’t carry over cookies from regular mode, or between sessions. What exactly are folks expecting here? Google to break out of the explicitly requested sandbox?

MBCook 3y ago
You don’t have to be snarky. I want the app to keep a single boolean flag in memory: user is authorized to not see ads. They don’t need to know who I am, just that I don’t need to see ads. That seems imminently doable.
- falcolas 3y ago
  Yes, they do. YouTube distributes your premium funds to creators by watch time. If they can’t associate your views with your subscription, they can’t compensate creators fairly. Not to mention, it’s imminently not possible. Not without poking holes in what is and is not shared between regular and incognito mode (across 5+ browsers owned by different businesses, no less). And breaking this barrier would earn Google a ton of backlash, and rightfully so.
  - MBCook 3y ago
    > across 5+ browsers owned by different businesses, no less I don’t care about that. I agree this would be impossible in the browser. I’m talking about the official app specifically, they should be able to do it there. Premium funds is a good point I hadn’t thought of. I’d be fine if that didn’t happen while in incognito. Treat me like incognito mode for any other random user, just without ads. I don’t run it all the time. And I wouldn’t if they did this. It’s extremely rare I want to do this. But if I look up a recipe I’m likely to be bombarded with cooking channels. Home DIY fix? Similar. God forbid I look up a news video on a current event.
- bagacrap 3y ago
  Huh? How will they know whether to set that bit if they don't know who you are?
  - MBCook 3y ago
    They knew before I turned on incognito in the YT app. I just don’t want that one bit erased.
    - usui 3y ago
      I dislike YouTube as much as the next person, but do you understand how unreasonable of an ask this is when you are explicitly going into incognito mode? I echo everyone else's sentiment here.
      - xkgt 3y ago
        I don't know why everyone is fixated on the term incognito. I believe what GP wants (and me too) is to pause watching history or to at least exclude a viewing session from the recommendation algorithm.
        usui 3y ago
        Let's discuss this feature some more? The reason users such as yourself want this feature is because you don't have faith in the recommendation algorithm, right? If you watched a video and Google started pushing related videos that you don't want to constantly see, and you clicked on the "do not recommend this kind of video" option, and it actually worked, would you be satifised without this "exclude from recommendation algorithm" mode? If yes, the better solution here would be to have a recommendation system that isn't garbage. I admit I kind of fancy this described mode, but the only reason is I don't currently trust Google to actually respect my expressed discontent. And if we don't trust Google to have a faithful recommendation system, why would we be willing to trust YouTube Premium?
    - bagacrap 3y ago
      If that bit is a literal bit, there will be an extension that just sets that bit, thereby bypassing ads when you didn't actually pay a subscription. If that bit is some sort of encoded identifier that an extension couldn't generate, then they will know who you are.

MBCook 3y ago

You don’t have to be snarky. I want the app to keep a single boolean flag in memory: user is authorized to not see ads. They don’t need to know who I am, just that I don’t need to see ads. That seems imminently doable.

falcolas 3y ago
Yes, they do. YouTube distributes your premium funds to creators by watch time. If they can’t associate your views with your subscription, they can’t compensate creators fairly. Not to mention, it’s imminently not possible. Not without poking holes in what is and is not shared between regular and incognito mode (across 5+ browsers owned by different businesses, no less). And breaking this barrier would earn Google a ton of backlash, and rightfully so.
- MBCook 3y ago
  > across 5+ browsers owned by different businesses, no less I don’t care about that. I agree this would be impossible in the browser. I’m talking about the official app specifically, they should be able to do it there. Premium funds is a good point I hadn’t thought of. I’d be fine if that didn’t happen while in incognito. Treat me like incognito mode for any other random user, just without ads. I don’t run it all the time. And I wouldn’t if they did this. It’s extremely rare I want to do this. But if I look up a recipe I’m likely to be bombarded with cooking channels. Home DIY fix? Similar. God forbid I look up a news video on a current event.
bagacrap 3y ago
Huh? How will they know whether to set that bit if they don't know who you are?
- MBCook 3y ago
  They knew before I turned on incognito in the YT app. I just don’t want that one bit erased.
  - usui 3y ago
    I dislike YouTube as much as the next person, but do you understand how unreasonable of an ask this is when you are explicitly going into incognito mode? I echo everyone else's sentiment here.
    - xkgt 3y ago
      I don't know why everyone is fixated on the term incognito. I believe what GP wants (and me too) is to pause watching history or to at least exclude a viewing session from the recommendation algorithm.
      - usui 3y ago
        Let's discuss this feature some more? The reason users such as yourself want this feature is because you don't have faith in the recommendation algorithm, right? If you watched a video and Google started pushing related videos that you don't want to constantly see, and you clicked on the "do not recommend this kind of video" option, and it actually worked, would you be satifised without this "exclude from recommendation algorithm" mode? If yes, the better solution here would be to have a recommendation system that isn't garbage. I admit I kind of fancy this described mode, but the only reason is I don't currently trust Google to actually respect my expressed discontent. And if we don't trust Google to have a faithful recommendation system, why would we be willing to trust YouTube Premium?
  - bagacrap 3y ago
    If that bit is a literal bit, there will be an extension that just sets that bit, thereby bypassing ads when you didn't actually pay a subscription. If that bit is some sort of encoded identifier that an extension couldn't generate, then they will know who you are.