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Comment by CommieBobDole | Hacker News Reader

I think that's a problem on every platform; on Apple News, if I read an article that's actual news that involves a celebrity somehow ("Tom Hanks murders 12, dies in hail of gunfire") I get a deluge of celebrity gossip ("OMG you won't believe what Kylie Jenner's cousin's brother's hairstylist said")articles for weeks.

I sort of feel like their recommendation AI is a bunch of if-then statements designed to funnel you into more heavily-monetized content if they think you display any interest at all.

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Oh there was a LegalEagle episode on Kim Kardashian studying to pass the bar. He goes over the history and process of taking the bar without going to law school. But the title of the video has her name.

Reality TV recommendations... Jersey shore... celebrity gossip...everywhere...it took 2 weeks to disappear. Strep throat is cured in less time than contracting celeb gossip videos.

Yeah these aren’t content recommendation engines, they’re ad engines

I somewhat do agree with the ad engine... but it's a crappy one.

I'm a guy in my 30s. Nothing in my view history ever says, "Hey, this guy is progressive enough to wear makeup." At that, I watch english, polish, and french videos. Ads I get, Spanish. I dont know spanish. I'd accept general language learning ads. But tostitos and I think one was health or house insurance... in spanish. It's like the ad bot is some redneck that thinks there are two languages, American and not-American.

The recommendation bot and ad bot are just terrible. The moment theres a half way decent competitor to youtube, my ass is jumping ship.

Do you have the “tune ads based on view history” (or whatever it’s called) turned off by chance?

Already checked that a while ago when I complained to a friend who asked the same. I still get plenty of ads for stuff like CNC machines, mechanic classes and other stuff. I'm okay with some random stuff that feels like the marketer was going out on a limb. But some are just... selling paintings to Stevie Wonder.

Book a honeymoon, constantly Google administrative marriage questions ... still get ads for engagement rings.

You never know. Maybe people who got married recently are more likely to get married again soon?

I'm curious what happens then if you ever have to plan a funeral. Which, yea I'm being morbid... but it would be pretty messed up to continue getting funeral related ads over time.

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