Don't forget how you get five or six results from your search term before it starts listing random videos like it has ADHD.
On a similar note, I've started noticing the third video in the "related videos" section on the right-hand sidebar is usually a new video with _extremely_ clickbait and inflammatory titles - sometimes with little connection to the topics I usually watch.
They're extremely distracting so I've set up a uBlock filter for these: `www.youtube.com##ytd-compact-video-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(3)`
This doesn't work 100% of the time, but it's good enough. (in particular, it fails if what I'm watching is a trailer video which makes the 2nd recommendation in the sidebar be a movie recommendation which doesn't fit this rule; as a result it blocks the 4th entry in the list, but oh well)
well just watch... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1NeA3WoKc
I sometimes wonder if the opposite is true - that the PMs can convince the upper managment that users are staying on the website longer with all those stupid as fuck shit changes, but in reality they are there longer because it's increasingly more difficult to find anything you are looking for
Sort of 'When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure'
This mind trick is called the Gruen transfer.
...and it probably does in the short term, as you just try to engage more with the software trying ever harder to find what you want. But probably also kills engagement in the long term. Personal experience with this: Facebook post-2020 vs Facebook pre-2015.
Facebook pre-2015 was so magical as I was finally reconnecting with long-lost school friends and childhood neighbors we long lost touch with (pre-email friends.)
Facebook post-2020 is me engaging desperately to see something other than the same 10 repeated posts per day...knowing full well that the magic is still in there, just not visible by default. And then one day I just stopped checking.
But yeah anyway, do you still know people who actually post on Facebook?
I don’t think any other social media came close to how purely good Facebook was in its golden years. I’d love for someone to write a book on how it declined.
Never got there. After a brief detour in some Greek channels I can't comment on, I ended up in a seemingly endless loop of mindfully woke TEDx talks (as in, no political or inflammatory stuff, just different variations of "how to live your life to the fullest", "this is how your brain works", "the secret to to happiness/productivity/communication...", etc.
Logged in:
Watching RedLetterMedia video, get recommended a clickbaity video about comic books: https://postimg.cc/QVkc7QwQ
Watching Colombo snippets, get recommended some celeb Net Worth trashy video: https://postimg.cc/grRNTL5j
Climate Town links to some unrelated video about Orlando amusement parks: https://postimg.cc/jW0zNMxh
These are way milder than I remember, btw.
Logged out, no weird recommendations:
So yeah, logged out doesn't have that 3rd obnoxious video, which is kind of interesting.
A number of YT'ers I follow have mentioned this is basically required now for any sort of rankings.
Search has become one of the most dysfunctional features in Google products. I am extremely annoyed that I am paying for YouTube Premium, I might just pull the plug and install a network-wide ad blocker system so I can vote with my wallet.
God, I hate modern Google.
Something similar happens on Twitter when you search for something in the "Top" tab. It doesn't show you results with your search terms. Instead, it shows something peripherally related to what you searched, but much more popular and engaging.
Youtube is starting to become more like television, or Netflix.