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It's a pity YouTube doesn't let people built innovative interfaces to this treasure trove. It's so frustrating that their interface is so very bad for discover

It's a pity YouTube doesn't let people built innovative interfaces to this treasure trove. It's so frustrating that their interface is so very bad for discovery and exploration.

littlexsparkee 6mo ago
It feels like I stumble upon gems in spite of their UI and have been trying to spend less time there to avoid the timesink otherwise. If it's not saved on my watch later / in my subscriptions or recommended to me credibly, it's probably a waste of time.
- krapp 6mo ago
  Youtube is actually really good for finding new, non-mainstream music in my experience.
  - sph 6mo ago
    No, you soon realize it’s promoting the same ‘niche’ videos to a large cohort. You and half a million people worldwide have that video recommended from the same unknown Russian indie rock band
    - krapp 6mo ago
      So what? Either it appeals to my interests or it doesn't. Why should I care if a million other people get it recommended as well?
      - kardos 6mo ago
        Well it won't be 'non-mainstream' for one
        krapp 6mo ago
        Sure it would. No matter how many people see, say, Shpongle on their timeline, they're never going to be mainstream. No one is going to be talking about 空夜coo:ya in the same conversation as Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars. Being slightly more visible in the algorithm for a brief period isn't going mainstream. And even if that were the case, again, so what? If Youtube makes good non-mainstream music more popular, that's still a good thing. That's exactly what one should want a recommendation algorithm to do. I'm trying to see the problem here and I can't.
    - Slow_Hand 6mo ago
      Consider that your experience isn’t universally applicable to everyone. As a lifelong musician, I find it to be a great resource for discovery. I really lean into curating what I do and don’t want to see and it delivers amazing results frequently. It’s also a nice counterpoint to recs I get from other sources: streaming services, friends, strangers, and good ‘ol fashioned digging.
coffeefirst 6mo ago
I’ve thought about doing this. I mostly use YouTube for cooking and home maintenance. Give me the pasta making video shot in a commercial Italian kitchen with captions, and a grizzled old handyman demonstrating how to caulk the shower. These exist. They should be discoverable. They used to be. But in 2026 the search results skew towards dubious influencers and AI schlock. It misses the point. The video that is most valuable to me isn’t necessarily popular, is not the authors real job, but they actually know what they’re doing and explain it well. You wouldn’t even need a full UI, just a big curated directory of useful stuff.
hedgedoops2 6mo ago
Ding ding ding This is one of the things a comprehensive interoperability mandate could enable. Require monopolistic companies that have a frontend/backend architecture to publish the interface docs and to not obstruct third party commercial alt backends/frontends. Its a bit like carving up monopolistic firms along the joints (interfaces) defined by the software architecture, and team structure. Just less extreme; the firm isnt actually split, it's just required to allow "fair competition by third party architecture components" This would really improve googles software, we might get e2ee google keep or gmail with pgp. (I have not worked out the details of this, it might not be feasible)
kotaKat 6mo ago
That's why they have kept trying to shove stupid cards in between videos going "ask for videos any way you'd like!" with a stupid AI chatbot. No. Fix the goddamn video search in the first place, I don't want to talk to some asshole chatbot to find a video. Then the cards between videos telling me about YouTube Playables. Goddamnit, this is a video site, not a goddamn game site.

It's a pity YouTube doesn't let people built innovative interfaces to this treasure trove. It's so frustrating that their interface is so very bad for discovery and exploration.

littlexsparkee 6mo ago

It feels like I stumble upon gems in spite of their UI and have been trying to spend less time there to avoid the timesink otherwise. If it's not saved on my watch later / in my subscriptions or recommended to me credibly, it's probably a waste of time.

krapp 6mo ago
Youtube is actually really good for finding new, non-mainstream music in my experience.
- sph 6mo ago
  No, you soon realize it’s promoting the same ‘niche’ videos to a large cohort. You and half a million people worldwide have that video recommended from the same unknown Russian indie rock band
  - krapp 6mo ago
    So what? Either it appeals to my interests or it doesn't. Why should I care if a million other people get it recommended as well?
    - kardos 6mo ago
      Well it won't be 'non-mainstream' for one
      - krapp 6mo ago
        Sure it would. No matter how many people see, say, Shpongle on their timeline, they're never going to be mainstream. No one is going to be talking about 空夜coo:ya in the same conversation as Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars. Being slightly more visible in the algorithm for a brief period isn't going mainstream. And even if that were the case, again, so what? If Youtube makes good non-mainstream music more popular, that's still a good thing. That's exactly what one should want a recommendation algorithm to do. I'm trying to see the problem here and I can't.
  - Slow_Hand 6mo ago
    Consider that your experience isn’t universally applicable to everyone. As a lifelong musician, I find it to be a great resource for discovery. I really lean into curating what I do and don’t want to see and it delivers amazing results frequently. It’s also a nice counterpoint to recs I get from other sources: streaming services, friends, strangers, and good ‘ol fashioned digging.

coffeefirst 6mo ago

I’ve thought about doing this. I mostly use YouTube for cooking and home maintenance. Give me the pasta making video shot in a commercial Italian kitchen with captions, and a grizzled old handyman demonstrating how to caulk the shower. These exist. They should be discoverable. They used to be. But in 2026 the search results skew towards dubious influencers and AI schlock. It misses the point. The video that is most valuable to me isn’t necessarily popular, is not the authors real job, but they actually know what they’re doing and explain it well. You wouldn’t even need a full UI, just a big curated directory of useful stuff.

hedgedoops2 6mo ago

Ding ding ding This is one of the things a comprehensive interoperability mandate could enable. Require monopolistic companies that have a frontend/backend architecture to publish the interface docs and to not obstruct third party commercial alt backends/frontends. Its a bit like carving up monopolistic firms along the joints (interfaces) defined by the software architecture, and team structure. Just less extreme; the firm isnt actually split, it's just required to allow "fair competition by third party architecture components" This would really improve googles software, we might get e2ee google keep or gmail with pgp. (I have not worked out the details of this, it might not be feasible)

kotaKat 6mo ago

That's why they have kept trying to shove stupid cards in between videos going "ask for videos any way you'd like!" with a stupid AI chatbot. No. Fix the goddamn video search in the first place, I don't want to talk to some asshole chatbot to find a video. Then the cards between videos telling me about YouTube Playables. Goddamnit, this is a video site, not a goddamn game site.