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Ask HN: Did YouTube start recommending more short videos to you out of nowhere?

29 points by shrvtv ↗ HN
I don't watch YouTube Shorts and I also don't watch videos shorter than 3 minutes. And yet they still show up a lot on the recommendations page, even though I click "Not interested" button every time. I do use a Google account and YouTube history is turned on.

Does anyone else notice this?

21 comments

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zibzab
It's a business thing.

They are trying to take on tik tok

Cwizard
Do you have the youtube mobile app? These videos show up there with a dedicated UI, a bit like Instagram stories. I have never used TikTok but I imagine it is a bit the same concept and a market they are trying to compete in. My theory is that through these short video UI elements people watch a lot of them (it keeps playing new, short videos, no-end, a bit like infinite scrolling I guess), this gives these videos a lot of views, the normal recommendation system is not explicitly aware that these videos are 'special' and recommends them outside of the short video UI because they seem to be popular because they get a lot of views. Hence your recommendation page is full of 30 seconds videos you are not really interested in...

This is my theory because I don't think the short video concept works outside of the infinite loop. I uninstalled the YT app after this. I must admit I was spending too much time on it after they added it. Really a shame, I really liked YT.

edmcnulty101
Getting more and longer ads than a few years ago.
mrkramer
They needed to beef up their revenue that's why. Facebook does the same but there is a limit on how many ads you can stuff without degrading UX. Too many ads and frustration of users rises and they leave. Luckily on YouTube you can purchase YouTube Premium and use it ad-free.
programmer_dude
No. Mostly watch YouTube on my TV. I don't watch shorts even when on my phone. They are just too addictive and void of any real value.
bravetraveler
Only to channels which I'm subscribed, of course

I've turned off watch history and they recently made that necessary for the main suggestion queue ('discover?')

As a result I really only get suggestions in the end of video cards (selected by the channel) and the list on the right - which is almost always ~8+ minutes

I watch almost exclusively on a desktop machine/browser for what it's worth. The mobile experience is way too much

Google LOVES a/b testing. I wouldn't be surprised to find we're in different studies

MrYellowP
I do get more #shorts in my feed recently. I don't know if all of them are from channel's I'm subscribed to.

Generally, some month ago, two?, I felt like the feed has changed for the worse.

It's not actually presenting anything new or interesting anymore. Feed turned more into an echo-chamber of the same topics just from different people. A massive waste of time. Hasn't always been like this, so I might be at fault for that to happen.

BonsaiAU
I've been noticing less and less interesting content and more videos I've already watched - and a similar theme on YouTube music as well.

If I had to roughly guess I feel like it started getting worse about 6 months ago but it's hard to quantify - am I just getting older and more bored/less adventurous? I don't think so. Maybe a little.

vfulco2
Yes, automated posts of pre-existing branded content by pretend users/posters/authors. It's horribly affected the overall experience.
pubby
My friend makes videos and her shorts are getting 15x the views her regular videos are getting. I think YouTube is promoting shorts hard.
cybarDOTlive
you should use the blocktube browser app, it has a setting where you'll only see videos over X seconds, minutes, or under X seconds, minutes, etc.
bcraven
https://vancedapp.com/

YouTube Vanced lets you customise what UI elements are displayed in the app. Android-only, I believe, but I couldn't imagine not installing it now

cuteboy19
Careful, the more people install it the less likely it is that Google will keep ignoring it.
weare138
Yes that's been happening to me also. For some reason the past few weeks my feed has been inundated with short meme/clip videos from random low quality channels. Not that Youtube's recommendations were particularly good to begin with but it has been noticeably worse lately.
MaknMoreGtnLess
YouTube is promoting shorts hard to compete with TikTok.

A lot of content creators are seeing short term spikes in their shorts engagement due to this YouTube promotion strategy and cannibalizing their channel in the process, focusing on content that can match shorts vs. higher value but longer content.

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danuker
I only use YouTube through my PC and NewPipe. I did not get any Shorts recommended to me so far.

I believe I encountered an A/B test starting today. While looking at a channel, I saw the Short under "Videos" as a regular video. But refreshing the page, I can no longer see it there, but only on the channel page, under Shorts.

I discovered that a Short can be viewed as a video by replacing its https://www.youtube.com/shorts/<ID> URL with regular https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<ID>.

I despise the fact that I can't rewind. Needless to say, the experience falls... short.