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From the perspective of a content consumer without a youtube account, the quality of the service continues to decrease. The most basic use case of uploading an

From the perspective of a content consumer without a youtube account, the quality of the service continues to decrease. The most basic use case of uploading and linking to or embedding content remains invaluable, but functionality facilitating content exploration has noticeably diminished over time. This can clearly be seen in the list of suggested videos presented to the user for each video being watched. Google, understandably, wants to increase metrics related to time spent on site since it facilitates selling ads. This has led from suggestions having less emphasis on presenting related videos. Instead, priority is given to videos algorithmically determined to most likely be clicked on by the viewer. This has resulted in the suggestion list becoming increasingly obnoxious even for viewers without youtube accounts. For instance, if I pull up the Dead Skeletons - Dead Mantra music video [1] -- my new favorite psychedelic rock song -- the first four video suggestions are: I. Weird trick for baldness (ad) II. Dead Skeletons Mix (playlist of 49 videos) III. Magical Healing Aura - Om Mani Padme Hum (featured video) [new age esque instrumental with 8 million views] IV. MOST SHOCKING DEATHS ON CAMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!.flv [presumably a Faces of Death style video for those that enjoy watching people die; absolutely not something I want to expose myself to] The deaths on camera video only recently infected the suggestion list for this video. Apparently it's the highest ranking result of some algorithm predicting what I'll most likely click on independent of the video I landed on. My only guess at explaining this suggestion is I recently followed some youtube and wikipedia links on reddit about the mysterious circumstances surrounding Edgar Allen Poe's death. This obnoxious suggestion that I can't opt out of has made me pay more attention to the top suggestions on the videos I watch. Ultimately I'm served up with suggestions that increasingly remind me how Google is tracking my past behavior even though I don't currently use a youtube or gmail account. This has left me longing for the good old days of youtube where I would often follow related video links and discover great new content. The result of these changes in video recommendation strategy is gradually conditioning me to expect personalized linkbait instead of related content, leading to less time spent on site. It's a damn shame that Google is so focused on maximizing ad sales at the expense of content exploration functionality. The immediate value and historical importance of the content hosted on YouTube needs a better steward than Google. Thank god Wikipedia hasn't fallen into the hands of a for-profit entity. I can imagine Google getting their hands on the current Wikipedia functionality and gradually jailing users in a Panopticon of filter bubbles optimized for ad targeting -- Orwell spinning in his grave. Hopefully I'll be able to look back on the previous paragraph in the future and see it proved to be FUD... [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsyrOGRxF0E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsyrOGRxF0E Edit: I may be wrong about the MOST SHOCKING DEATHS ON VIDEO!!!!!!!!!.flv suggestion being targeted specifically at me. However, "The Stupidest Bid on The Price is Right" further down the suggestion list almost certainly is.

bentcorner 13y ago
Without data it's hard to tell what is actually going on. I suspect that an algorithmic focused company like Google is aware of click-after (or whatever it's called) rates of videos on youtube. It's certainly plausible that viewers of the linked video do enjoy watching shocking deaths on camera (for the record, I have a G+ account and am logged into youtube and also see the same video as the 3rd related video). Without persistent tracking information I'm not sure how you could make this better. On aggregate, people who watch a music video by the Dead Skeletons tend to enjoy also watching shocking deaths on camera. My guess at a solution is for Google to do more tracking. They obviously don't understand that you don't watch or appreciate watching people die, so why show it? Edit: If, while you're logged in, you could "X" out videos you don't watch in the suggested video list that could be a great signal to Google that you don't want to watch such content.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- Fr0styMatt 13y ago
  I think we can somewhat offer Google the benefit of the doubt here too. It's likely that there's someone else targeting Google's algorithm to get that spammy video suggested to as many people as possible. As you (mcphilip) said you don't have a YouTube account, so presumably Google has less data on what you might like or dislike. Suggesting more relevant results to you means that Google needs more data about what you like individually. It's balancing that whole "tracking me is evil" vs "showing me stuff I actually want to see is good". I stay logged into my G+/YouTube account and the suggestions I get are generally acceptable, sometimes even great. I've never found them outright obnoxious in my case.
hrjet 13y ago
Another problem with the "suggested videos list" is: there is no quick way to know how many people liked (or disliked) the suggested video, and their suggestion algorithm doesn't take that into account!! There are often videos with misleading thumbnails and descriptions (link baits), with millions of views which have been disliked by 99% of viewers, and yet are in the top suggestions list. This clearly indicates that the algorithm is optimising for maximum clicks rather than optimising for a satisfactory viewing experience.

bentcorner 13y ago

Without data it's hard to tell what is actually going on. I suspect that an algorithmic focused company like Google is aware of click-after (or whatever it's called) rates of videos on youtube. It's certainly plausible that viewers of the linked video do enjoy watching shocking deaths on camera (for the record, I have a G+ account and am logged into youtube and also see the same video as the 3rd related video). Without persistent tracking information I'm not sure how you could make this better. On aggregate, people who watch a music video by the Dead Skeletons tend to enjoy also watching shocking deaths on camera. My guess at a solution is for Google to do more tracking. They obviously don't understand that you don't watch or appreciate watching people die, so why show it? Edit: If, while you're logged in, you could "X" out videos you don't watch in the suggested video list that could be a great signal to Google that you don't want to watch such content.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Fr0styMatt 13y ago
I think we can somewhat offer Google the benefit of the doubt here too. It's likely that there's someone else targeting Google's algorithm to get that spammy video suggested to as many people as possible. As you (mcphilip) said you don't have a YouTube account, so presumably Google has less data on what you might like or dislike. Suggesting more relevant results to you means that Google needs more data about what you like individually. It's balancing that whole "tracking me is evil" vs "showing me stuff I actually want to see is good". I stay logged into my G+/YouTube account and the suggestions I get are generally acceptable, sometimes even great. I've never found them outright obnoxious in my case.

hrjet 13y ago

Another problem with the "suggested videos list" is: there is no quick way to know how many people liked (or disliked) the suggested video, and their suggestion algorithm doesn't take that into account!! There are often videos with misleading thumbnails and descriptions (link baits), with millions of views which have been disliked by 99% of viewers, and yet are in the top suggestions list. This clearly indicates that the algorithm is optimising for maximum clicks rather than optimising for a satisfactory viewing experience.