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I enjoy paying and watching Youtube Premium on my TV (through a sideloaded app), but whenever I open the official app on my iPad, I am bombarded with Shorts, ev

by sph 3y ago

I enjoy paying and watching Youtube Premium on my TV (through a sideloaded app), but whenever I open the official app on my iPad, I am bombarded with Shorts, every search I make returns clickbait, unrelated content among the real results and that annoys me so much I keep thinking I should stop giving Youtube any money. Google, the bloody search engine company, keeps making sure that every search I make about video game videos, returns totally unrelated clips about very sexualised Twitch streamers ("how is this allowed on Twitch??" with some very prominent cleavage in the thumbnail), or any other thirst bait that has nothing to do with what I have been looking for. Funnily enough, they don't even let you choose "don't recommend this channel" for these results. I tried clearing my watch history, disliking the video, reporting them, Google doesn't fucking care. They are force-fed to you, hoping every single time you click on it. Honestly I just wish that company burns to the ground. Literally making their platform as shitty as possible to increase their bottom line. Yes, clickbait works, it does not mean you need to turn the entire place into clickbait. Jesus that makes my blood boil. I know I could just read a book instead of watching my favorite content creators on the platforms, not all of which are on Nebula. But it takes some effort to create a product that pushes people away from it. Or that they hate themselves for using it.

tracker1 3y ago
I wish that Rubble or others worried nearly as well. Also a TV user (NVidia Shield TV) and it seems every other time I check Rumble I have to sign in again. The recommendations are garbage and half the content feed is just noise. I'd really like something similar but not so heavy handed as YouTube gets on suggestions and content filtering. I've also tried a few also ran video services and none haber been even as good as rumble as bad as their TV app is.
phatfish 3y ago
Yup, I'm not sure how anyone uses the standard YouTube app. Even with adverts removed you get bombarded by shorts and nonsense clickbait/disinformation. I use it currently with a patched Revanced apk which is not logged in (in case Google suddenly take to banning accounts) and some UX tweaks like blocking shorts. For the couple of channels I actually would like to support in some way I stomach using the official app and give them some ad impressions.
danpalmer 3y ago
How much do you use YouTube? Because as a fairly substantial user, this doesn't match my experience at all. When I wasn't watching Shorts they were present but not in-your-face. Search pretty much always returns exactly what I'm looking for, there's no clickbait except for the low level of clickbait that the channels I like use... I pay not to have ads, but that's about it. Honestly, I really enjoy it. The app could be a little more iOS-ified, but that's a minor gripe. I wonder if you're just a sufficiently light user that it's not learning your preferences, or, I wonder if much of the personalisation comes from client-side event logging which, by using a third party app, you're skipping, meaning that in many ways your profile is missing data.
- guitarbill 3y ago
  My experience is much closer to parent than yours, and I don't use any third party app. Yes, I have paid. And no, I'm not "just a sufficiently light user". That's pretty dismissive actually. The official app sucks, and the desperate Shorts push is annoying at best. Shorts are injected into the search, and search is otherwise as bad as discussed. On the bottom menu/bar, the five things are "Home", "Shorts", the plus/capture/upload button (why would I ever want to use this on mobile? oh yeah, I don't and only accidentally press it, but Youtube wants people to upload Shorts), "Subscriptions" and "Profile". This is the same on iPad. At least with YT Music, seems they realised that the UX of the main app was so bad, they just needed a separate one. But with Shorts, the desperation for those sweet Zoomer ad views was too high, so into the main app it goes.
  - danpalmer 3y ago
    > And no, I'm not "just a sufficiently light user". That's pretty dismissive actually. Apologies, certainly not intentional. I've just observed users in the past who just don't use the product much and as a result have recommendations that are much closer to what I see when I open YouTube in an incognito tab with no history. This is all fair criticism. I do (now) use Shorts, although I resisted for a long time. I actually get very different videos on Shorts to my regular watching, and it found what I wanted pretty quickly. I get that the weight of the app judging by the nav bar is partially shorts and uploading, but home/subs/profile would I think be valuable to you? They certainly are to me (for playlists/downloads access in profile for example). And then many other users do use Shorts and uploading, so this doesn't feel too out of balance. Instagram having a "shop" tab, or WhatsApp having an "updates" tab are similarly of little use to me, but I understand why the products have them and don't begrudge there being users who use the product in different ways.
mobilemidget 3y ago
Besides the regular gaming content on twitch there is a bunch of weird stuff. I noticed there is this ASMR type content where people lick plastic ears in front of a microphone. The amount of views they get, concurrent streams was mind boggling for me. But regarding 'sexy' content they recently made some policy updates, they initially hammered down on such content, but I think it hurted their income stream. https://safety.twitch.tv/s/article/Updating-our-Approach-to-Sexual-Content-and-Content-Classification-Labels?language=en_US https://safety.twitch.tv/s/article/Updating-our-Approach-to-...
- sph 3y ago
  Twitch has become a soft-core porn website. But it's easy to avoid. Youtube blatantly promoting clickbait videos, injecting them into search results, with no way to tune the recommendations is worse.

by sph 3y ago

tracker1 3y ago

I wish that Rubble or others worried nearly as well. Also a TV user (NVidia Shield TV) and it seems every other time I check Rumble I have to sign in again. The recommendations are garbage and half the content feed is just noise. I'd really like something similar but not so heavy handed as YouTube gets on suggestions and content filtering. I've also tried a few also ran video services and none haber been even as good as rumble as bad as their TV app is.

phatfish 3y ago

Yup, I'm not sure how anyone uses the standard YouTube app. Even with adverts removed you get bombarded by shorts and nonsense clickbait/disinformation. I use it currently with a patched Revanced apk which is not logged in (in case Google suddenly take to banning accounts) and some UX tweaks like blocking shorts. For the couple of channels I actually would like to support in some way I stomach using the official app and give them some ad impressions.

danpalmer 3y ago

How much do you use YouTube? Because as a fairly substantial user, this doesn't match my experience at all. When I wasn't watching Shorts they were present but not in-your-face. Search pretty much always returns exactly what I'm looking for, there's no clickbait except for the low level of clickbait that the channels I like use... I pay not to have ads, but that's about it. Honestly, I really enjoy it. The app could be a little more iOS-ified, but that's a minor gripe. I wonder if you're just a sufficiently light user that it's not learning your preferences, or, I wonder if much of the personalisation comes from client-side event logging which, by using a third party app, you're skipping, meaning that in many ways your profile is missing data.

guitarbill 3y ago
My experience is much closer to parent than yours, and I don't use any third party app. Yes, I have paid. And no, I'm not "just a sufficiently light user". That's pretty dismissive actually. The official app sucks, and the desperate Shorts push is annoying at best. Shorts are injected into the search, and search is otherwise as bad as discussed. On the bottom menu/bar, the five things are "Home", "Shorts", the plus/capture/upload button (why would I ever want to use this on mobile? oh yeah, I don't and only accidentally press it, but Youtube wants people to upload Shorts), "Subscriptions" and "Profile". This is the same on iPad. At least with YT Music, seems they realised that the UX of the main app was so bad, they just needed a separate one. But with Shorts, the desperation for those sweet Zoomer ad views was too high, so into the main app it goes.
- danpalmer 3y ago
  > And no, I'm not "just a sufficiently light user". That's pretty dismissive actually. Apologies, certainly not intentional. I've just observed users in the past who just don't use the product much and as a result have recommendations that are much closer to what I see when I open YouTube in an incognito tab with no history. This is all fair criticism. I do (now) use Shorts, although I resisted for a long time. I actually get very different videos on Shorts to my regular watching, and it found what I wanted pretty quickly. I get that the weight of the app judging by the nav bar is partially shorts and uploading, but home/subs/profile would I think be valuable to you? They certainly are to me (for playlists/downloads access in profile for example). And then many other users do use Shorts and uploading, so this doesn't feel too out of balance. Instagram having a "shop" tab, or WhatsApp having an "updates" tab are similarly of little use to me, but I understand why the products have them and don't begrudge there being users who use the product in different ways.

mobilemidget 3y ago

Besides the regular gaming content on twitch there is a bunch of weird stuff. I noticed there is this ASMR type content where people lick plastic ears in front of a microphone. The amount of views they get, concurrent streams was mind boggling for me. But regarding 'sexy' content they recently made some policy updates, they initially hammered down on such content, but I think it hurted their income stream. https://safety.twitch.tv/s/article/Updating-our-Approach-to-Sexual-Content-and-Content-Classification-Labels?language=en_US https://safety.twitch.tv/s/article/Updating-our-Approach-to-...

sph 3y ago
Twitch has become a soft-core porn website. But it's easy to avoid. Youtube blatantly promoting clickbait videos, injecting them into search results, with no way to tune the recommendations is worse.