3 ms·

> though it hyper-specialized a bit too much That seems to be the state of the industry everywhere. YouTube does this on a extreme level as well. Just the oth

by diggan 3y ago

> though it hyper-specialized a bit too much That seems to be the state of the industry everywhere. YouTube does this on a extreme level as well. Just the other day I watched 3 videos in a row about the WRC Kenya stage after never watching anything related to rally or cars on my YouTube/Google account, an account I've had for almost 2 decades by now. But, after watching those 3 videos, Google now thinks I'm all about cars, and 80% of all my recommendations are now WRC, F1 or other car-related videos. My other interests that they knew since before, are almost completely gone. How can they screw up something so basic? Does anyone actually like things to work like this? Am I missing something super obvious?

wongarsu 3y ago
This is imho one of the big draws and competitive advantages of TikTok. TikTok is by no means immune to this, but it handles it much better than Youtube or Instagram. It actively shows you some amount of content outside your current bubble, and reacts strongly to any signal you give it about that content (including watch time). It also seems to stop showing you topics when you show continued disinterest.
- pests 3y ago
  Yep. This is the secret sauce many miss about TikTok.
Tbutorac 3y ago
My Youtube has been ruined by my kid's shows. I literally have none of my interests showing up anymore because I've let them watch a few things. I actually work on a recommendation team at a large content company and this has me realizing we don't really think about this ie how to build an overall profile that isn't impacted by one-offs. I think part of the issue is many models are black boxes without much explainability so it's not always clear or easy to understand why a model provided recommendations. We just look to optimize for engagement so if our recommendations are driving more engagement, we dial into that. If they're not, we adjust course

by diggan 3y ago

wongarsu 3y ago

This is imho one of the big draws and competitive advantages of TikTok. TikTok is by no means immune to this, but it handles it much better than Youtube or Instagram. It actively shows you some amount of content outside your current bubble, and reacts strongly to any signal you give it about that content (including watch time). It also seems to stop showing you topics when you show continued disinterest.

pests 3y ago
Yep. This is the secret sauce many miss about TikTok.

Tbutorac 3y ago

My Youtube has been ruined by my kid's shows. I literally have none of my interests showing up anymore because I've let them watch a few things. I actually work on a recommendation team at a large content company and this has me realizing we don't really think about this ie how to build an overall profile that isn't impacted by one-offs. I think part of the issue is many models are black boxes without much explainability so it's not always clear or easy to understand why a model provided recommendations. We just look to optimize for engagement so if our recommendations are driving more engagement, we dial into that. If they're not, we adjust course