This is explained on this support answer
It’s a thing on Revanced YT even if spoofing an old version. Applies to the web version as well now
This seems to be due to some new EU law ?
Doesn’t that make sense? How would they know what to recommend if they don’t store the history of what you watch?
Yes I know it’s bogus and they store it anyway - but just to humor the theory.
Since YouTube’s beginning it has made recommendations without using a watch history. For personalized recommendations, it based them on subscriptions if watch history wasn’t on.
Maybe they can just ask you about what you want to watch?
Speaking of which, have you watched the movie yet? Pretty good right? ☺️
Hah that would make sense indeed. Right against Google’s modus operandi though.
What movie? Barbie? (Guessing based on your username.) Not yet. I’m binging Star Trek SNW now.
You’ve been on LW for this long and don’t know about me.😭
And I participated in both Star War Memes and Totally Not Robots after you made them…
I know about you, I just don’t remember if we’ve talked about some movie. My memory isn’t what it used to be.
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That is bloody lovely to not get distracted
yup, I didn’t say it was bad, I just said they made this a thing :)
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Is this a con for people?
The recommendation algorithm has always been garbage to me.
Is this bad? I really wouldn’t want YouTube to recommend me random garbage if they didn’t know what I already watched
lol, I’ve always kept my watch history “paused” and YouTube always recommends… the videos I’ve already seen. Great. Thanks.
Yt already recommends videos I’ve seen which is why I turned it off, now it doesn’t know what I’m interested in based on previous vids I’ve seen
Oh, nice! I really appreciate those rare occasions where Google makes my experience better.
I vouch for Newpipe 👍
I uninstalled Spotify after I found newpipe. I add all my fav songs in playlist and when I want to list, I hit play all and all my fav songs starts to play. Love it! Newpipe is the best
Check out InnerTune on f-droid. You’ll find it’s even better than Newpipe for music.
I’ve used it. Some songs refuse to play and sometimes it just stops responding to touch. I am using a custom rom, A13 so not sure if its the ROM or app. If its working fine for you then checkout musify and blackhole.
I’ve been using ViMusic for music and it’s great but I’ve downloaded my favorite songs on deezer with deemix and I’m using jellyfin to stream them lately …but I’ll check InnerTune anyway 😄
Actually nice.
Am I the only one to find Google to be completely stupid here? Aren’t they missing out on a chance to push videos with ads?
Yes and no. Without a users video history (& other tracking turned off) best they can do is push random ads hoping it would hit one in a million. That is not effective and sometimes even diseffective (hitting a controversially opposite target). Tha harms YouTube on both ends more than the ad’s company
By pushing users to turn it on they apparently gain more than just pushing random horse crap.
There’s not really much evidence that targeted ads work any better than random ads. Plus they already have a point of data to serve ads: what video the user is watching.
Edit: both ends = b2b&b2c
Honestly this is making me want to turn mine off, but having a watch history is very convenient
alternative youtube frontends like Invidious, Newpipe or Freetube (Desktop) keep their own watch history without letting google know
What’s up with the weird logo on YouTube lately?
Click it and it will show you.
Some calligraphy thing
Wait, that’s all I have to do? Now I just need to figure out how to turn video history off.
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Piped servers a getting blocked by Google apparently
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Just checked right now, Piped doesn’t load any videos anymore. However, Invidious still works. NewPipe (which directly connects to YouTube, doesn’t go through a Piped instance) on Android also works.
You are using the official client? It’s terrible on pretty much any platform
I’m using revanced
Yeah that’s it for me, I’m done with the YT app. They keep making it shittier. Guess I’ll give revanced a look.
You’ll never go back. It doesn’t take much to set up. There are guides.
Already all done sub 15 minutes.
How are they going to know what to recommend if they have no idea what you’re interested in?
I’m genuinely surprised how many people don’t like youtube recommendations. It works really well for me
They seemed to manage just fine before the change. I had watch history off and I got fairly relevant suggestions based on the view I was currently watching along with my subscriptions.
This isn’t about suggesting videos this is about making users accept lesser levels of privacy in order to get more money from targeted advertising by withholding previously functional features.
Like they managed before?
Messed around with it. If I have zero video history and turn it on it has accurate recommendations, based on videos I’ve recently watched (while watch history was disabled).
ok. first to-do things on my list now.
Seriously, youtube recommendation become a trash. All it recommend me is propaganda videos even though I’m never interested in it. Gone are the golden age where youtubers don’t simp for like, share, subscribe and comment.
It’s on topic. You’re good. 👍
