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YouTube stops recommending videos when signed out of Google (www.bleepingcomputer.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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YouTube is no longer showing recommended videos to users logged out of a Google account or using Incognito mode, making people concerned they are being bullied into always being signed into the service.

This change, which is now rolling out, shows a simple YouTube homepage without any videos or tips on what to watch.

As noted by some on X, users who have cleaned their search and watch history or turned off their history settings also see no suggestions when they're logged in. Some people think YouTube is being pushy about this, trying to make users turn on their history settings.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

All that is left is letting people without a watch history default to seeing their subscriptions instead of a blank page. That's the whole point of subscribing: I want my own curated experience. I don't want to watch BS YouTube thinks I want to watch.

It was a mistake letting YouTube decide on behalf of everyone that recommendations was a better experience than letting the users decide for themselves what to watch. The recommendations are no less of an echo chamber. Worse, the recommendations are gamed with churned, garbage content. It's the same problem as google search.

We need a return to form of user-curated content. Down with algorithmic recommendations.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

It actually works like this in the FreeTube app on PC or NewPipe on Android. It feels so much better having my own home page showing only videos who I'm subscribed to. Plus another added benefit is that you can put your subscriptions into categories, which is a great way of filtering down to the exact type of video's you feel like watching at the time. FreeTube personally stopped my unhealthy video-watching habits almost instantly, which were basically psychologically trained into me by YouTube's algorithm.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Maybe you'd like to see some Andrew Tate shorts?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

That pretty much describes how I use my Piped server in Feed mode. It only show my subs and I can filter out Shorts from those as well. Pretty sure the public Pipeds are the same if you make an account.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

You can get extensions which make the homepage redirect to your subscriptions page. Lifesaver imo.