I use the "dont recommend channel" option or "I don't like the video" liberally
Re:YouTube Won the Battle for TV Viewers
by doubled112 on Thursday July 24, 2025 @08:07AM
(#44669683)
I use my phone and Firefox Focus for looking up random videos on YouTube because of this.
Re:YouTube Won the Battle for TV Viewers
by WorldMaker on Thursday July 24, 2025 @01:00PM
(#44673102)
I have taken this to an extreme, I suppose. I sequestered my Google Account entirely to a Firefox container on my PCs and pretty much the YouTube app and only the YouTube app on my phone. Most random videos I watch in Discord embeds and mobile Safari/Firefox views that are never logged in to my Google Account.
My YouTube ads (and Recaptcha experiences) have gotten terrible because Google seems to punish you more the less data you feed them, but for the most part I feel like I have control of the data that I do feed them (some of which is intentionally misleading because they have no right to know and I hate targeted ads; I love Spanish language ads, for instance, though my level of Spanish comprehension is stuck somewhere around first year of high school courses).
Re:YouTube Won the Battle for TV Viewers
by munificent on Thursday July 24, 2025 @12:47PM
(#44672933)
I like camping and knitting, so I watch a lot of those. YouTube is generally pretty good at understanding my interests, but every now and then it sees those and thinks "Doomsday prepper tradwife" and throws some of that nonsense my way and I have to remind it to not recommend any of that stuff.
Just because I look up one video of “how to replace a toilet seat” doesn’t mean I am a connoisseur of toilets.
The other problem I run into is that no matter what I’m watching, I’m two autoplay videos away from Joe Rogan (and other right wing personas). Who knew something as innocent as listening about the economy of Iceland can be two videos away from why the Superman movie is too woke.