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Comment by mkl | Hacker News Reader

But you have to be logged in. I often pop into an incognito window to watch a video that I don't want YouTube to recommend things related to, which seems to work. YouTube Premium prevents that, right?

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I've found that just removing the video from my watch history after I watch it side steps this issue entirely. Frankly, seems a bit easier than opening a whole incognito window and being forced to watch ads anyways.

It's hardly an ordeal to press ctrl-shift-n, or right-click and "Open link in incognito window". There are no ads with uBlock Origin allowed in incognito windows. There is no need to worry about manually maintaining watch history either.

Fair point, but I'm already paying for YT Premium and on mobile switching to an Incognito tab would be a lot more work. I tend to watch a lot more YT content on mobile like during my commute on the ferry. On desktop definitely agree though!

Turn off YouTube history tracking. Then subscribe a lot to content you like. Then ignore the front page, and just scroll your subscriptions. The algorithm is really just candy, you are much better just curating your subscription list. You will get recommendations from end the end of videos.

I beg to differ, in my particular case, YouTube has by far the best calibrated algorithm I've been exposed to

I've been consistently exposed to great creators even if they have low viewcounts, and they know which creators I'm subscribed I don't watch at upload time vs which ones I do

I do keep an eye on what do I signal engagement to, so I guess It's not a perfect sample, but still

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