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It may be summarized to what they want, but it can be what I want too. All YouTube recommendations are already what I want to see. Videos from creators who shar

It may be summarized to what they want, but it can be what I want too. All YouTube recommendations are already what I want to see. Videos from creators who share my world view, criticizing what I hate, and praising what I've already liked. If this Chrome's new feature is also personalized in this manner, I can read articles against my view and still get only what I want. My world view will become increasingly polarized, and it's already quite biased.

Drakim 3y ago
When I try to search up a topic on YouTube, the list of search results eventually STOP showing videos matching my criteria and instead show 10 videos in a row labeled "People also watched" that is unrelated to my search. It's one thing to get recommendations in a place where recommendations are appropriate, and the dangers of the feedback loop you are talking about. It's another thing entirely to actively push it in other contexts. "I know you are searching for programming topics, but might you be interested in this political outrage instead?"
- andsoitis 3y ago
  > results eventually STOP showing videos matching my criteria How long is that typical list? How often do you pick the things at the bottom of that list vs the results near the top?
  - everdrive 3y ago
    I pick things from the bottom of the list a lot. I really hate when engineers try to guess what I want. I already know what I want. These “automatic” products are terrible.
    - andsoitis 3y ago
      What do you think is a good list length? One can assume search results are practically infinite, so you have to make a decision of where to stop. What would your heuristic / algorithm be for determining the termination point?
      - everdrive 3y ago
        A list of every video where my terms show up somewhere in the title or description.
        andsoitis 3y ago
        Do you want it sorted in some way? If so, why might you go to page 99999999999999 and pick the last item?
        everdrive 3y ago
        I’m not searching for some huge wildcard — I’m searching for some video content which must be generated by somebody and uploaded. There are not billions of results for “cool cover of a song I like” — there are hundreds of results at most. I want those hundreds of results.
        andsoitis 3y ago
        Maybe you can just use a different product (search site) to get better results.
      - JohnFen 3y ago
        > One can assume search results are practically infinite I don't think that can be assumed at all, actually. At least, it sure doesn't look that way when I search for most things, on YouTube or elsewhere. Most of them run out of relevant results pretty quickly and then start including obviously irrelevant results.
  - Drakim 3y ago
    I did a test, searching for a pop song. I got 9 results for that pop song and then the "People also watched" section comes up. After 4 results with a +6 more button, it goes back to my pop song results.
- rchaud 3y ago
  What you're describing is a common UX dark pattern. The system must never show blank space in the UI for a search result, lest it drive them into the arms of a competitor. We can thank Netflix for starting the trend of "we don't have this, but how about this other thing that we do have?"
  - fooofw 3y ago
    I'm not sure that fully explains it here. I see more relevant search results below the "People also watched" section (just checked now). Further down, there is also "For you" and "Previously watched" which have videos of no discernible relevance to the query and these are also followed by again more relevant search results.
  - mrguyorama 3y ago
    No, youtube will cut off your search results early to show you videos it think will engage you more regardless of how many search results there actually are. Google does not give a fuck what you think you want, because they know better than you
- skybrian 3y ago
  The trick to get rid of that is to go to search filters and select "videos."
jraph 3y ago
Well, I'm not quite at ease with trusting a third party to try to guess my (ever changing?) world view. How do you know it works well? How do you know it misses nothing? How do you know it's not subtly biased (intentionally or not) in a way you would not notice, or you would think it's good enough? > I can read articles against my view and still get only what I want. My world view will become increasingly polarized, and it's already quite biased. Yes, of course we all do, but it's another thing to involve a third party in this process.
everdrive 3y ago
>All YouTube recommendations are already what I want to see I wish I had your experience. My YouTube recommendations can definitely be said to be “my fault” in some sense of the word, but wherever the blame lies they’re still mostly terrible. YouTube will watch me skip a video for a whole week, but keep showing it to me “just in case.” I’d rather it were just a dumb search at this point.
paganel 3y ago
With the new Shorts feature the YT has gotten so bad that it isn’t even funny anymore. I wonder if anyone there is using their product.
JohnFen 3y ago
> All YouTube recommendations are already what I want to see. I might feel more kindly toward YouTube recommendations if they did this for me.
fauigerzigerk 3y ago
I was ahead of my time 30 years ago when I achieved the exact same result by simply buying the right newspaper. And if I wanted to find more in depth material to support my firmly held beliefs I just had to go to the right bookstore.

Drakim 3y ago

When I try to search up a topic on YouTube, the list of search results eventually STOP showing videos matching my criteria and instead show 10 videos in a row labeled "People also watched" that is unrelated to my search. It's one thing to get recommendations in a place where recommendations are appropriate, and the dangers of the feedback loop you are talking about. It's another thing entirely to actively push it in other contexts. "I know you are searching for programming topics, but might you be interested in this political outrage instead?"

andsoitis 3y ago
> results eventually STOP showing videos matching my criteria How long is that typical list? How often do you pick the things at the bottom of that list vs the results near the top?
- everdrive 3y ago
  I pick things from the bottom of the list a lot. I really hate when engineers try to guess what I want. I already know what I want. These “automatic” products are terrible.
  - andsoitis 3y ago
    What do you think is a good list length? One can assume search results are practically infinite, so you have to make a decision of where to stop. What would your heuristic / algorithm be for determining the termination point?
    - everdrive 3y ago
      A list of every video where my terms show up somewhere in the title or description.
      - andsoitis 3y ago
        Do you want it sorted in some way? If so, why might you go to page 99999999999999 and pick the last item?
        everdrive 3y ago
        I’m not searching for some huge wildcard — I’m searching for some video content which must be generated by somebody and uploaded. There are not billions of results for “cool cover of a song I like” — there are hundreds of results at most. I want those hundreds of results.
        andsoitis 3y ago
        Maybe you can just use a different product (search site) to get better results.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      > One can assume search results are practically infinite I don't think that can be assumed at all, actually. At least, it sure doesn't look that way when I search for most things, on YouTube or elsewhere. Most of them run out of relevant results pretty quickly and then start including obviously irrelevant results.
- Drakim 3y ago
  I did a test, searching for a pop song. I got 9 results for that pop song and then the "People also watched" section comes up. After 4 results with a +6 more button, it goes back to my pop song results.
rchaud 3y ago
What you're describing is a common UX dark pattern. The system must never show blank space in the UI for a search result, lest it drive them into the arms of a competitor. We can thank Netflix for starting the trend of "we don't have this, but how about this other thing that we do have?"
- fooofw 3y ago
  I'm not sure that fully explains it here. I see more relevant search results below the "People also watched" section (just checked now). Further down, there is also "For you" and "Previously watched" which have videos of no discernible relevance to the query and these are also followed by again more relevant search results.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  No, youtube will cut off your search results early to show you videos it think will engage you more regardless of how many search results there actually are. Google does not give a fuck what you think you want, because they know better than you
skybrian 3y ago
The trick to get rid of that is to go to search filters and select "videos."

jraph 3y ago

Well, I'm not quite at ease with trusting a third party to try to guess my (ever changing?) world view. How do you know it works well? How do you know it misses nothing? How do you know it's not subtly biased (intentionally or not) in a way you would not notice, or you would think it's good enough? > I can read articles against my view and still get only what I want. My world view will become increasingly polarized, and it's already quite biased. Yes, of course we all do, but it's another thing to involve a third party in this process.

everdrive 3y ago

>All YouTube recommendations are already what I want to see I wish I had your experience. My YouTube recommendations can definitely be said to be “my fault” in some sense of the word, but wherever the blame lies they’re still mostly terrible. YouTube will watch me skip a video for a whole week, but keep showing it to me “just in case.” I’d rather it were just a dumb search at this point.

paganel 3y ago

With the new Shorts feature the YT has gotten so bad that it isn’t even funny anymore. I wonder if anyone there is using their product.

JohnFen 3y ago

> All YouTube recommendations are already what I want to see. I might feel more kindly toward YouTube recommendations if they did this for me.

fauigerzigerk 3y ago

I was ahead of my time 30 years ago when I achieved the exact same result by simply buying the right newspaper. And if I wanted to find more in depth material to support my firmly held beliefs I just had to go to the right bookstore.