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Ask HN: Is there a way to watch unrelated videos on YT

11 points by lnenad ↗ HN
Right now if you watch a single video on any topic you will be permaspammed by relevant videos even thought you might be extremely disinterested in them.

Example is watching a review of washing machines and then YT thinking you are now the person with the greatest interest in washing machines in the world.

Is there a way to avoid this by some incognito mode or is there a product manager from Google that understands that not *every* video you watch is related to long term interests?

17 comments

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solardev
I think you can just turn off your YouTube watch history? https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/95725?hl=en&co=GEN...

And then if you pay for Premium, that should also stop the targeted ads.

lnenad
It's not about ads (I have premium). It's about recommendations, and I like their recommendations sometimes but only when they are relevant. But my problem is the model is overfitting for new videos that you watch and it ruins recommendations.
taurath
Their recommendation algorithm is pretty terrible and seems to be based around people linking remotely to youtubes, rather than finding things on platform. Watch one “sleep white noise” video and that’s all that shows up in recommendations despite hundreds of subscriptions.

Like almost everything else Google it’s sort of not improved in 10 years and one can bet they’re ramping up “AI” recommendations internally right now to get near where TikTok was 4 years ago without “AI”.

jotjotzzz
It's mind-boggling since so many 'smart' people work there, they can't get it right. Another example is their search. I want to see the latest videos posted and filter them based only on the English language. It's fairly unusable in its current form. Users must rely on the algorithm to be fed "relevant" videos to watch.
FrenchDevRemote
They're getting it right, they just don't have the same incentives as the end users.

Their KPIs are "time spent watching videos", "ads being watched", not "is the user happy" or "is he watching relevant content".

Their products are designed to be addictive and profitable, not entertaining or useful.

taurath
It works for a few years and then everyone moves on, like almost every other platform that stops caring about the user
JohnFen
YouTube's recommendation system is, in my opinion, bordering on worthless. My solution is to ignore the recommendations entirely so I don't have to manage my viewing with an eye toward its impact on them.
wruza
Go to history and X these videos from there. Also unlike if you accidentally liked it. In general, dislike irrelevant content actively, don’t let it creep in. History hygiene is a must nowadays.

is there a product manager from Google that understands that not every video you watch is related to long term interests

When you stop thinking of google as a high-tech company with good managers and engineers, and realize it’s been 20+ years and now it’s just a leetcode-fenced club full of mediocrity, many dots in this picture connect by themselves.

speedgoose
I have been using more the "not interested" option on the videos I’m not going to watch lately. It’s a bit annoying that I have to do that instead of scrolling down and ignoring them, but that’s the only way to get more diversity in my YouTube feed.
TheRoque
The thing is what exactly is "unrelated" ? If you want just quality unrelated videos then just check the most popular ones on a topic or in your country. If you don't care about quality then just find a YouTube randomizer (I'm pretty sure it exists)

But I'm pretty sure it's super rare to find something that is unpopular, that fits your tastes, and that is unrelated to your history, all 3 at the same time

throwaway211
Don't log in. Use a VPN. Clear browsing history after each visit.

They're still profiling you, but at least they pretend not to do it with the above.

sen
I very regularly (every week or so) go to my YT history and delete any random isolated videos that I watched that don’t suit my general interests. Keeps the recommendations relevant to the majority average of what I choose to watch.
ManlyBread
If you have a profile and a playlist that consists of things you like (can be the Liked videos one):

1) Nuke the built-in youtube history

2) Download browser plugins that disable the "are you still watching" popup and one that lets you watch videos faster than 2x

3) Click on your playlist, make sure autoplay is on

4) Leave the entire thing overnight so that the history fills up

This didn't fix the problem, but it at least made it bearable and improved the quality of recommendations.

I also recommend the "Channel Blocker" extension, works a lot better than built-in functionality