"Desperate"Tube

[Jacob Roman]

I don't wanna think I'm the only one, but is anyone here getting a ton of YouTube videos in their feed that have absolutely nothing to do with your interests? I never "Not Interested" so many videos in my whole life. It's as though YouTube is getting desperate.

[FunkyDexter]

I've never bothered signing up so I guess YouTube simply targets me via cookies. It's weird because there are 4 different devices I view it from (desktop, laptop, TV in living room and TV in bedroom) and they've all headed off in completely different directions. The one in the bedroom is particularly weird because I tend to leave it on while I sleep. Without guidance from me it discovers it's own paths which currently seems to include competitive rowing. I've never rowed in my life

[Shaggy Hiker]

Probably got there from the 'paddling' videos.

I never signed up, either, so I get some really strange things showing up. There'll be a string of cat videos, and right in the middle will be something about the tactics of Roman Legions....hunh???

[si_the_geek]

I don't sign in to it, but for a long time now I've been noticing that along with sensible suggestions (such as more music from bands I like) there are some rather odd suggestions that don't make much sense at all.

I'm assuming that those unexpected ones are sponsored in some way, so rather than what I might be interested in the suggestions are about what 'advertisers' want me to get in to, even tho there is no obvious gain for them.

[FunkyDexter]

something about the tactics of Roman Legions

I'm getting a load of that too. I'd put it down to the fact that I'm a bit of a history nerd.

[Victor Bravo VI]

Here are some articles I found when I searched for Better YouTube Recommendations:

• ‘YouTube recommendations are toxic,’ says dev who worked on the algorithm
  
  

  “It isn’t inherently awful that YouTube uses AI to recommend video for you, because if the AI is well tuned it can help you get what you want. This would be amazing,” Chaslot told TNW. “But the problem is that the AI isn’t built to help you get what you want — it’s built to get you addicted to YouTube. Recommendations were designed to waste your time.”

• How Does the YouTube Algorithm Work? A Guide to Getting More Views
  
  
• Sick of Irrelevant YouTube Recommendations? Here’s What You Need to Do
  
  
• Manage your recommendations and search results
  
  
• Improve YouTube on TV recommendations

[Jacob Roman]

Just to give yall examples, in the music side of things, I love european metal, metal step, electro (with the breakbeats and robot vocoder). I love programming and math as well. I also love gaming, and even retro gaming. I love south park, and rick and morty. I also love fitness. When it comes to politics, im more leaning on the libertarian side of things. With all of that said, why on earth am I getting videos on rick james vevo, how to build a minature cement bridge sculpture, lots and lots of star wars, which I like, but Im no fan and only like the old ones, car related videos, vevos to bands i never heard of to genres i could care less on, country music, marble machines, and on and on and on...

I not only have an account with youtube, i have youtube premium. And these past few days have been absolutely horrible for the recommendations.

[TysonLPrice]

I use Google news quite a bit. A typical headline will have four to five different links to the same story. For example a headline about Trump might have links to WAPO, Faux news, CBS, etc. More and more there are links to YouTube. I hate that because I'd rather read news and also I always keep the sound off. If the story is on YouTube I usually close the link without looking.

https://news.google.com/?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en

[Shaggy Hiker]

I get links to sausage, cuffs, and golf courses. What does that mean?

[TysonLPrice]

I get links to sausage, cuffs, and golf courses. What does that mean?

It is obvious you are looking for the "missing link". You and Darwin...