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The longer I use youtube while signed in, the more useless it becomes to me. I have a wide range of interests. If I'm watching the Dead Skeletons - Dead Mantr

The longer I use youtube while signed in, the more useless it becomes to me. I have a wide range of interests. If I'm watching the Dead Skeletons - Dead Mantra music video, it's not helpful to have 5 Starcraft 2 VODs in the recommended video list (i.e. I enjoy watching professional Starcraft 2). I'd much prefer recommendations similar to the Dead Skeletons. I've found no way to turn off this recommendation bubble and have since decided youtube is best used without an account if you want to actually explore its content.

dec0dedab0de 13y ago
I can't agree with this enough. The same goes for targeted advertising. I already know what other things I like, show me stuff I'm looking for now.
- plus- 13y ago
  It always make me laugh seeing ads for something I already bought couple of days ago.
typon 13y ago
After having deleted everything from my old non-Google account, I decided to stop using YouTube logged in. Everything is so much better, the only thing I hate is how I can't give likes to videos. Everything else is okay, brings back the exploration aspect that made YouTube fun.
InclinedPlane 13y ago
It's really goddamned frustrating and just shows how hollow google is as a company. They have search and ads, and an utter inability to actually build anything else or connect with a customer base. For a company this is like having cancer. It's astounding that they can ignore the situation to such a degree. Youtube is already an amazing force in the world, and that's with google half-assing so much of it. With enough work it could be a multi-billion dollar business and the next generation of media. Instead it'll probably take years while individuals and 3rd parties figure out ways to do what google fails to do (make content more explorable and discoverable, for one, make paid revenue models possible, for another) for them to catch on and build the functionality into youtube directly. Meanwhile, instead of building improvements they're paying this stupid google plus strategy tax. Google is chasing facebook when they should be chasing HBO, and amazon, and the discovery channel. It's like they live in a giant mansion with a huge lawn where a bunch of super talented people have been camping out for a while, trying to figure out how to make the next generation of video work. And everyday google gets out of bed, looks out over that scene, grunts, scratches its ass, thinks maybe they should just call the cops to get rid of the hooligans, then goes off to watch Judge Judy.
- bambax 13y ago
  But look, we're building this awesome boat in SF Bay from scraped container parts! How cool is that??!?
- janson0 13y ago
  I totally agree with you on this. It is mind boggling. We are resorting to working on a platform for video discovery and monetization, since we just got disgusted as both content creators on YouTube and also as consumers (and found so many other people have the same disgust).
- larrys 13y ago
  "Google is chasing facebook when they should be chasing HBO, and amazon, and the discovery channel. It's like they live in a giant mansion with a huge lawn where a bunch of super talented people have been camping out for a while, trying to figure out how to make the next generation of video work. And everyday google gets out of bed, looks out over that scene, grunts, scratches its ass, thinks maybe they should just call the cops to get rid of the hooligans, then goes off to watch Judge Judy." I really like the way you put that. This is a result of perhaps super success at an early age (the founders), not enough hunger (to much money), hiring what you think are the best and the brightest (surprise - all those tests don't really work as our high achievers who designed them thought they would) and not recognizing the role of luck in your previous success. Used to be known in the past as becoming "fat and lazy" - I think that was the saying.
  - InclinedPlane 13y ago
    I had typed up something similar already but abandoned the post. But that's pretty much exactly it. Google managed to build something early on that is difficult to compete with, and now they are resting on it. The company revenues are split up into 3 parts: search/ads, backbone internet, and "other". Where "other" is a tiny fraction of the whole that is almost inconsequential to their profit margin. It's a "problem" that a lot of companies have where they are in a position where revenue is actually too easy. That may seem like a blessing but it has many downsides and typically chokes growth potential. The consequences for failure at a functional company are usually pretty significant. If SpaceX builds a rocket that doesn't work or if Toyota builds a car that absolutely nobody wants that hurts the bottom line. And it drives the company to do better. But at google what are the consequences? If someone at google makes an unprofitable product, well, that's the norm. It just gets tossed in the "other" bin with everything else and everyone laughs and goes back to their free lunches and complementary massages. It's a romper room filled with nerf toys. And many folks at google are seemingly content to luxuriate in that environment. Why would anyone at google willingly push themselves out into the cold, unforgiving, and desolate world of real-world business where actions have serious consequences when they can just futz around in the "other" play room, slap ads on their "products" and call it a day? Google has no drive to make youtube the best it can be. And the same goes for gdocs, gmail, app engine, or any other thing they make.
naterator 13y ago
This is the thing that bothers/scares me the most about this balkanization of the internet that's happening. You end up getting forced into bubbles that someone else has decided you belong in. And if you don't know it's happening, you can't even try to stop it. For me, I have not found utility in the things that have been selected for me, so most of these services are becoming useless. All those "smartest guys in the room" at places like Facebook and Google and Wherever are really fucking up if their goal was to direct me to things I like and might pay money for.
- seiji 13y ago
  Share and Enjoy
- abraham 13y ago
  > You end up getting forced into bubbles that someone else has decided you belong in. You are not forced into anything, if you don't want to be put into "bubbles" use other services.
  - EpicEng 13y ago
    Not that black and white and you know it. These services are obiqutous. It's sometimes impossible to ignore them and they do in fact provide a great experience (the best really) in many ways. That doesn't mean they don't have faults and it doesn't mean people who use these services should simply ignore said faults or move away from them completely.
  - dredmorbius 13y ago
    Well, then you're put in the bubble of people who don't use the offending service. And ... this may be news to you, but every once in a while a large bubbling company may actually buy some upstart service where their own attempts at NIH entry into a niche fail. You know, like Google buying YouTube in the first place.
  - lowkeykiwi 13y ago
    'forced' is the wrong word for me, 'placed' is better. and avoiding them is fine for the competent but they are invisible to most people which is where the problems occur. The political bubbles are easy to spot but there are tons of people who have no idea and think they are getting the whole story.
bambax 13y ago
Seconded. I was wondering if it was possible to be accountless on Youtube while logged in in Gmail, in the same browser, or if one needed to use two browsers. It turns out, blocking all cookies for youtube.com and www.youtube.com does the trick!! And it also solves the very annoying name change prompt that blocks every other video when logged in.
- krcz 13y ago
  This is what I use porn mode (aka incognito mode) for.
  - bambax 13y ago
    Yes, but incognito mode doesn't set itself up automatically when clicking on a link in an email, for example, whereas with the cookie-blocking solution, it's always on.
    - darkr 13y ago
      echo "alias 'chromium'='chromium --incognito'" >> ~/.bash_aliases
    - pchander 13y ago
      Right click > Open link in incognito window
- dgesang 13y ago
  I've switched back to manually select the websites that are allowed to use cookies. It's actually little effort and it feels good.
forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
I Agree. I miss the time when I could control what I search and find anything in any part of the world in any language. Now they believe that because I live in Spain I have to speak Spanish, or be interested first in Spanish stupid things, or be only interested on the topics I searched in the past. Now while using gmail I search with Bing, so it does not mess anything.
- JohnDoe365 13y ago
  Came here to second that. I live in Austria. Google pretends that all I am interesteed in has to be in the German language, somewhere nearby where I live and all sort of assumptions. Recently the Internet has become a small world for me. Going to google.com helps somewhat
  - marianov 13y ago
    http://www.google.com/ncr http://www.google.com/ncr (no country redirect). Gets saved in a cookie. No more local search. That's in case you get redirected to google.at or the like.
    - InclinedPlane 13y ago
      Thanks for this. I used to visit Canada a lot and if I ever used my laptop up there I'd have to contend with all my default search settings being switched to google.ca for a while.
    - ta_goo349 13y ago
      doesn't help with google not providing relevant search results anymore, and usually half the first page of results isn't even for the keywords I searched. it used to be 10 pages of relevant results.
- BrainInAJar 13y ago
  Filter bubble. Use DDG: http://dontbubble.us/ http://dontbubble.us/
coldarchon 13y ago
reminds me of the old days of google when I looked up "market penetration" and a condom add was shown in the right upper corner ..
sunF 13y ago
Have you tried the "feather" beta? No comments, no ads, five seemingly relevant suggestions. Now I'm listening to Spindrift, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Rebel Drones, BRMC, Money...

dec0dedab0de 13y ago

I can't agree with this enough. The same goes for targeted advertising. I already know what other things I like, show me stuff I'm looking for now.

plus- 13y ago
It always make me laugh seeing ads for something I already bought couple of days ago.

typon 13y ago

After having deleted everything from my old non-Google account, I decided to stop using YouTube logged in. Everything is so much better, the only thing I hate is how I can't give likes to videos. Everything else is okay, brings back the exploration aspect that made YouTube fun.

InclinedPlane 13y ago

It's really goddamned frustrating and just shows how hollow google is as a company. They have search and ads, and an utter inability to actually build anything else or connect with a customer base. For a company this is like having cancer. It's astounding that they can ignore the situation to such a degree. Youtube is already an amazing force in the world, and that's with google half-assing so much of it. With enough work it could be a multi-billion dollar business and the next generation of media. Instead it'll probably take years while individuals and 3rd parties figure out ways to do what google fails to do (make content more explorable and discoverable, for one, make paid revenue models possible, for another) for them to catch on and build the functionality into youtube directly. Meanwhile, instead of building improvements they're paying this stupid google plus strategy tax. Google is chasing facebook when they should be chasing HBO, and amazon, and the discovery channel. It's like they live in a giant mansion with a huge lawn where a bunch of super talented people have been camping out for a while, trying to figure out how to make the next generation of video work. And everyday google gets out of bed, looks out over that scene, grunts, scratches its ass, thinks maybe they should just call the cops to get rid of the hooligans, then goes off to watch Judge Judy.

bambax 13y ago
But look, we're building this awesome boat in SF Bay from scraped container parts! How cool is that??!?
janson0 13y ago
I totally agree with you on this. It is mind boggling. We are resorting to working on a platform for video discovery and monetization, since we just got disgusted as both content creators on YouTube and also as consumers (and found so many other people have the same disgust).
larrys 13y ago
"Google is chasing facebook when they should be chasing HBO, and amazon, and the discovery channel. It's like they live in a giant mansion with a huge lawn where a bunch of super talented people have been camping out for a while, trying to figure out how to make the next generation of video work. And everyday google gets out of bed, looks out over that scene, grunts, scratches its ass, thinks maybe they should just call the cops to get rid of the hooligans, then goes off to watch Judge Judy." I really like the way you put that. This is a result of perhaps super success at an early age (the founders), not enough hunger (to much money), hiring what you think are the best and the brightest (surprise - all those tests don't really work as our high achievers who designed them thought they would) and not recognizing the role of luck in your previous success. Used to be known in the past as becoming "fat and lazy" - I think that was the saying.
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  I had typed up something similar already but abandoned the post. But that's pretty much exactly it. Google managed to build something early on that is difficult to compete with, and now they are resting on it. The company revenues are split up into 3 parts: search/ads, backbone internet, and "other". Where "other" is a tiny fraction of the whole that is almost inconsequential to their profit margin. It's a "problem" that a lot of companies have where they are in a position where revenue is actually too easy. That may seem like a blessing but it has many downsides and typically chokes growth potential. The consequences for failure at a functional company are usually pretty significant. If SpaceX builds a rocket that doesn't work or if Toyota builds a car that absolutely nobody wants that hurts the bottom line. And it drives the company to do better. But at google what are the consequences? If someone at google makes an unprofitable product, well, that's the norm. It just gets tossed in the "other" bin with everything else and everyone laughs and goes back to their free lunches and complementary massages. It's a romper room filled with nerf toys. And many folks at google are seemingly content to luxuriate in that environment. Why would anyone at google willingly push themselves out into the cold, unforgiving, and desolate world of real-world business where actions have serious consequences when they can just futz around in the "other" play room, slap ads on their "products" and call it a day? Google has no drive to make youtube the best it can be. And the same goes for gdocs, gmail, app engine, or any other thing they make.

naterator 13y ago

This is the thing that bothers/scares me the most about this balkanization of the internet that's happening. You end up getting forced into bubbles that someone else has decided you belong in. And if you don't know it's happening, you can't even try to stop it. For me, I have not found utility in the things that have been selected for me, so most of these services are becoming useless. All those "smartest guys in the room" at places like Facebook and Google and Wherever are really fucking up if their goal was to direct me to things I like and might pay money for.

seiji 13y ago
Share and Enjoy
abraham 13y ago
> You end up getting forced into bubbles that someone else has decided you belong in. You are not forced into anything, if you don't want to be put into "bubbles" use other services.
- EpicEng 13y ago
  Not that black and white and you know it. These services are obiqutous. It's sometimes impossible to ignore them and they do in fact provide a great experience (the best really) in many ways. That doesn't mean they don't have faults and it doesn't mean people who use these services should simply ignore said faults or move away from them completely.
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  Well, then you're put in the bubble of people who don't use the offending service. And ... this may be news to you, but every once in a while a large bubbling company may actually buy some upstart service where their own attempts at NIH entry into a niche fail. You know, like Google buying YouTube in the first place.
- lowkeykiwi 13y ago
  'forced' is the wrong word for me, 'placed' is better. and avoiding them is fine for the competent but they are invisible to most people which is where the problems occur. The political bubbles are easy to spot but there are tons of people who have no idea and think they are getting the whole story.

bambax 13y ago

Seconded. I was wondering if it was possible to be accountless on Youtube while logged in in Gmail, in the same browser, or if one needed to use two browsers. It turns out, blocking all cookies for youtube.com and www.youtube.com does the trick!! And it also solves the very annoying name change prompt that blocks every other video when logged in.

krcz 13y ago
This is what I use porn mode (aka incognito mode) for.
- bambax 13y ago
  Yes, but incognito mode doesn't set itself up automatically when clicking on a link in an email, for example, whereas with the cookie-blocking solution, it's always on.
  - darkr 13y ago
    echo "alias 'chromium'='chromium --incognito'" >> ~/.bash_aliases
  - pchander 13y ago
    Right click > Open link in incognito window
dgesang 13y ago
I've switched back to manually select the websites that are allowed to use cookies. It's actually little effort and it feels good.

forgottenpaswrd 13y ago

I Agree. I miss the time when I could control what I search and find anything in any part of the world in any language. Now they believe that because I live in Spain I have to speak Spanish, or be interested first in Spanish stupid things, or be only interested on the topics I searched in the past. Now while using gmail I search with Bing, so it does not mess anything.

JohnDoe365 13y ago
Came here to second that. I live in Austria. Google pretends that all I am interesteed in has to be in the German language, somewhere nearby where I live and all sort of assumptions. Recently the Internet has become a small world for me. Going to google.com helps somewhat
- marianov 13y ago
  http://www.google.com/ncr http://www.google.com/ncr (no country redirect). Gets saved in a cookie. No more local search. That's in case you get redirected to google.at or the like.
  - InclinedPlane 13y ago
    Thanks for this. I used to visit Canada a lot and if I ever used my laptop up there I'd have to contend with all my default search settings being switched to google.ca for a while.
  - ta_goo349 13y ago
    doesn't help with google not providing relevant search results anymore, and usually half the first page of results isn't even for the keywords I searched. it used to be 10 pages of relevant results.
BrainInAJar 13y ago
Filter bubble. Use DDG: http://dontbubble.us/ http://dontbubble.us/

coldarchon 13y ago

reminds me of the old days of google when I looked up "market penetration" and a condom add was shown in the right upper corner ..

sunF 13y ago

Have you tried the "feather" beta? No comments, no ads, five seemingly relevant suggestions. Now I'm listening to Spindrift, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Rebel Drones, BRMC, Money...