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How YouTube's Algorithm Really Works (theatlantic.com)
YouTube wants to recommend things people will like, and the clearest signal of that is whether other people liked them. From a report: Pew found that 64 percent of recommendations went to videos with more than a million views. The 50 videos that YouTube recommended most often had been viewed an average of 456 million times each. Popularity begets popularity, at least in the case of users (or bots, as here) that YouTube doesn't know much about. On the other hand, YouTube has said in previous work describing its algorithm that users like fresher content, all else being equal. But it takes time for a post to build huge numbers of views and signal to the algorithm that it's worth promoting. So, the challenge becomes how to recommend "new videos that users want to watch" when those videos are new to the system and low in views. (Finding fresh, potentially hot videos is important, YouTube researchers have written, for "propagating viral content.")
Pew's research reflects this: About 5 percent of the recommendations went to videos with fewer than 50,000 views. The system learns from a video's early performance, and if it does well, views can grow rapidly. In one case, a highly recommended kids' video went from 34,000 views when Pew first encountered it in July to 30 million in August. The behavior of the system was explicable in a few other ways, too, especially as it adapted to making more clicks inside YouTube's system. First, as Pew's software made choices, the system selected longer videos. It's as if the software recognizes that the user is going to be around for a while, and starts to serve up longer fare. Second, it also began to recommend more popular videos regardless of how popular the starting video was.
Pew's research reflects this: About 5 percent of the recommendations went to videos with fewer than 50,000 views. The system learns from a video's early performance, and if it does well, views can grow rapidly. In one case, a highly recommended kids' video went from 34,000 views when Pew first encountered it in July to 30 million in August. The behavior of the system was explicable in a few other ways, too, especially as it adapted to making more clicks inside YouTube's system. First, as Pew's software made choices, the system selected longer videos. It's as if the software recognizes that the user is going to be around for a while, and starts to serve up longer fare. Second, it also began to recommend more popular videos regardless of how popular the starting video was.
I look up one video on how to fix something and all i get now are howto videos. I just needed one video to fix it. Its fixed stop sending me fixit videos and let me get back to my cat videos. Right meow
Very, very poorly.
Their criteria is what they think they'll make the most money on, and to hell with user preferences. I know this because I can tell it I'm not interested in a particular video, or entire category, then refresh the page, and that video or category will be back. Again and again and again, for months, even though I tell it I'm not interested every time.
This is as good a place as any.
For the last month or so when I clicked the "not interested" box the row collapsed but when I closed then re-opened YT it was there again.
I don't like seeing the "live gaming" and other things but they keep coming back.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
YouTube took a wrong turn somewhere with it's algorithm. Recommendations have less variety than basic on air tv channels. The algorithm always assumes you want something similar to what you've previously watched which is a major mistake. Yes I watched a clip of a late night talk show. But I don't need late night talk shows recommended to me constantly. Google has the same issue with advertising. Yes I bought a product but I don't need to buy multiple of them so stop advertising it to me constantly for a month afterwards.
but somebody once observed that some of the brightest minds of our generation are figuring out how to get me to watch cat videos (and the 15 second ad spot before them) instead of curing cancer. To say nothing of all the math wiz's working on quicker High Frequency Transactions for Wall Street.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
So when I search for "Live Slayer Reign 1986" I get:
- An instructional video on making a dove tail joint
- A small theater production of The King and I
- 4 different videos of stick thin pubescents doing covers of Taylor Swift on out of tune acoustic guitars
- The last ten minutes of Heavy Metal Parking Lot.
- A video on how the Federal Reserve is bringing back vampires from DNA
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
The first video mentioned in the TFA is: "Bath Song | +More Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs - Cocomelon (ABCkidTV)". Of course, children. YouTube's largest unofficial demographic that will watch anything put in front of them. One popular children channel has 6 billion views.
Easy-to-implement, user-friendly and even likeable feature helping you to really have a worthy recommendation system: checkboxes allowing users to enable/disable channels/videos. Please, just let me train your system for you! You keep showing me the recommendations as so far (when being logged-in or not, triggered by just one time I watched something which I didn't like or by hundreds of videos really relevant to me), but add 1-click-to-check-uncheck boxes. If I uncheck something, you don't show me that stuff again. Deal?
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
Not what we want to watch. Even when we want to watch it, what they recommend is a like a double layer 35" thick crust sauasge, beef, pepperoni pizza. We want it, but we avoid it because it isnot good for us. But they keep shoving it under our noses.
There are only 20 catagories,if that. This will drown out most thibgs. Want to see some huling or australian rules? Well, tough.
Adding a lot of subgroups and sub sub groups would sallready make it easier to include some and exlude others.
I woukd like some music, but not others. And searching with google.com gives better results than with youtube using the same search.. ,house building, toy trains, gaming. So how come theygive me the same makeup channel I am subscribed, as well as several other videos of other channels I am subscribed to to on a PC with a blank image after watching a soccer video? Somethung I never watcj, normally. Obviously not logged in anywhere.
It is also obvious it is tracking you. On a clean install, a search wil show the same prefered videos on the side as being logged in for a month. And i follow some non-connected suff.
Makeup 4wheel driving, computer related,
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Sounds like an iterative function. Let's hope it never explodes.
As more and more videos are uploaded, the ration of good to Garbage gets worse.
Eventually you won't be able to find anything good for all the garbage.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.