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Why is Google News recommending non-news YouTube videos?

15 points by PopeDotNinja ↗ HN
Google News used to be a pretty good feed of stuff I wouldn’t have thought to look for. Now it’s trash. Social media reactions (Someone flips out & drops bombshell of a reply to SomeoneElse), the same old hyper targeted content (as if the only thing I read about are jets and astrophysics), and now I’m getting YouTube recommendations for garbage videos. Ugh.

12 comments

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[dead] Fatheroftruth
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hindsightbias
I’m frustrated with youtube. If they track me by IP, it’s not working. A whole page of videos that I have zero interest in. It’s like the anti-analytics algorithm.

Been like this for a month or two.

jasonv
I joke that I want a YouTube “for adults”. Not “adult YouTube”. But the stuff they push on me would be appropriate for, uhh.. youth of a certain age. But I never click on them, I never will, I don’t understand why their algorithm can’t see what I’m subscribed to and what I watch and socialize accordingly.

I think the algos must really only work on the thinnest of the most popular videos... the daily dramas of you tubers with shocked faces. Or the algos heavily compensate for engagement and monetization and there’s no marketable middle tale. But if that’s the best YouTube can do with the data they have, I can’t wait for a disruption that isn’t exclusively the province of “the youth”..

/leaving the lawn...

Nathanba
I'm getting decent suggestions but you have train it well. Get rid of all music channels, all news channels, all channels that the algorithm could possibly connect to mainstream content.
tmaly
I always try to use incognito mode when viewing YouTube to keep my viewing history clean. I do not want suggestions on how to fix a garbage disposal after watching one video about it.
rvz
There's still plenty of garbage on Google News and especially YouTube since the democratisation of the partner network and nearly all the news organisations being present. But I've seen worse and its coming in the form of 'actual news'.

In the UK, we have a tax-funded broadcaster with a royal charter called 'BBC News' and a look at its online content is essentially a new level of woketopia. There's mountains and valleys of clickbait littered everywhere and its impartiality stance is evidently non-existent.

If I had to choose, I would rather pay for YouTube Premium or Netflix with all their junk than look at the hot garbage that is paid with a TV License to the BBC.

whereistimbo
If they had analytics on, maybe they are just following public demand? Just like how junk food is popular because it is instant and tasty.
newswasboring
The whole point of having income not being dependent on public demand is what made BBC good. But I do see the point that if everyone is paying the tax, then the programming should be catered to everyone?
rudiv
Awww, there go all my favorite panel shows.
Bedon292
I always have a Google News tab open on any computer I am on, and have for years now. I have yet to see a non news YouTube video on there. The only time I see any social media stuff, is if I click on "View Full Coverage" and scroll down. And only relevant stuff to the topic.

Perhaps you are seeing some A/B testing? Hopefully it will not stick around.

tzs
Google News seems to get fixated on some things. For a long time, it was recommending to me an endless stream of videos and stories about Dave Grohl, including stuff from low quality celebrity rumor sites.

I didn't even know who Dave Grohl was.

It turns out he was the drummer for Nirvana, and the founder of the Foo Fighters. I've heard of both bands, but have never purposefully listened to either of them.

As far as I can figure out, someone I know posted on Facebook a video of Grohl bringing a kid from the audience on stage to play guitar [1]

I watched it, and Google apparently decided from that single viewing of one video that for the next several weeks Grohl was the most important topic in the world to me.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhUgNciW2fs

PopeDotNinja
So I figured out part of it. Google News pulled a TikTok and introduced a #ForYou page. Somewhere along the way, the #ForYou page became the default option. I switched the default back to top stories. We’ll see how it goes.