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A comment on ‘YouTube recommendations are toxic,’ says dev who worked on the algorithm (2019). Parent comment

Re:‘YouTube recommendations are toxic,’ says dev who worked ... by vl on Wednesday December 23, 2020 @12:06PM (#25519646)
First of all, article is incorrect: for a long time now YT optimizes recommendations not for watch time, but for life-time engagement. YT probably has the most advanced QT ML in the world.

Second, it’s trivial to re-adjust recommendations: go to history and delete everything you didn’t like, and recommendations instantly will become much better.

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Re:‘YouTube recommendations are toxic,’ says dev who worked ... by disgruntledphd2 on Wednesday December 23, 2020 @03:38PM (#25521925)
> First of all, article is incorrect: for a long time now YT optimizes recommendations not for watch time, but for life-time engagement. YT probably has the most advanced QT ML in the world.

Lifetime engagement is a function of watch time, right?

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Re:‘YouTube recommendations are toxic,’ says dev who worked ... by vl on Wednesday December 23, 2020 @06:15PM (#25523392)
No, it turns that if you optimize for immediate watch time, people watch a lot at once and then didn’t return. It’s more profitable if people watch a little bit everyday for the rest of their life.
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