YouTube stops recommending videos when signed out of Google

Submitted ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/youtube-stops-recommending-videos-when-signed-out-of-google/

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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Comments

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pjwestin@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I stopped letting YouTube save my watch history years ago because their suggestion algorithm became too intrusive: watch a quick cooking tutorial, get nothing be cooking channels, look up the proper way to use a toggle bolt, YouTube wants to teach me how to re-shingle a roof. It was out of control.

First, they took away my home screen, because they claimed they couldn’t reccomend videos with my watch history (even though they’d done it for years). Then they took away the shorts tab, because they said they couldn’t reccomend shorts without my watch history (even though they’d done it for months). So now I just have my subscriptions, a curated list of things I actually want to watch. They’ve punished me with the product I wanted this whole time.

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Unyieldingly@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Not a Bug.

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MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is more of a feature than a problem IMO.

Most services (like meta/Facebook/Instagram/anything owned by zuck’, the service formerly known as Twitter…) are going to a model of: you need an account to even see anything posted publicly.

Not just extremely limited information like LinkedIn, like, instant redirect to “you need to be logged in to see this” or simply a login page.

At least you can still find something you want to see, and go and watch it… With ads and everything, sure, but the information is there and accessible.

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ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I haven’t signed into YouTube in maybe 5 or 6 months, cookies get deleted every time I shut down the browser, and I keep my subscriptions in FreeTube. But some things, like foreign language videos that need automatic caption translation, I still watch in YouTube.

Even so, I’ve only encountered a blank page like this maybe three times in all those months. And the blankness doesn’t last: as soon as I opened a specific video URL – any video URL – it fills right back up again with the same old shit, except now it’s ALL related to that one single video I opened.

This is no big deal. Open up any video and you still get sidebar recommendations. I use Blocktube to ensure I don’t see channels I don’t want, so it doesn’t just fill back up with Mr. Beast and Fox News, I continue to use FreeTube for everything else, and all is well.

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dariusj18@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
My guess,

It was too hard to create a non-authenticated algorithm which could let users delete their past participation.

They realized their non-auth algorithm was exposing too much info about what is going on during the upcoming election. And they are afraid that people will see all the fasc recommendations.
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- someguy3@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I think it’s number 2. Now I can’t see what the “default” presentation is (which always had 1 conspiracy theory thing).
  
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  - brbposting@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    This was my first thought
    
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- ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  It has stopped doing this for me too though. I’m European. I’m assuming it’s because they really want to stay on the correct side of European law.
  
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  - cerement@slrpnk.net ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    so many companies telling on themselves when they would rather remove functionality or block countries rather than just comply with privacy regulations …
    
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Rye@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
YouTube definitely not bullying users into staying signed it so that Google can aggregate more data about you /s

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pkill@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
will this affect invidious/piped?

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manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
they also dont recommend anything on your homepage when you’re signed in if you don’t have your watch history turned on (as if they’re not tracking it anyway)

lol, who cares

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Icaria@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You search for one thing and it starts showing recommendations.

I fail to see how this is a bad thing. Youtube’s old default homepage would show scam and content mill recommendations.

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z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Meh. For all the YT I consume, I haven’t visited the site in years. yt-dlp, sponsor block, invidious, and newpipe keep me far away, while still having all my aubs stored in a json file. Simple, easy, no algo suggestions, just organic heard about them from word of mouth subscription. No ads, no sponsor or patreon mentions, no like, no subscribe. Is bliss.

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phi1997@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Do they want me to watch fewer videos?

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IzzyScissor@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Fantastic news.

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paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Service to humanity.

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harsh3466@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I noticed this a few days ago or so and I was delighted by it. I never sign in to YouTube and hated the garbage recommendations on the homepage.

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phoneymouse@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I have never signed in to use YouTube

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- Joelk111@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Congratulations?
  
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koncertejo@lemmy.ml ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As with what others are saying here, pulling out algo nonsense is good, however I do worry that it slowly devolves into something similar to what’s happening with Twitter where you can barely look at anything without being pushed to login. It’s unusable unless you have an account. Websites shouldn’t operate like that.

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AlteredStateBlob@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
It'll be rolled back when they realize engagement drops.

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deafboy@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

making people concerned they are being bullied into always being signed into the service

So, the majority WANTS to see the political propaganda, endless livestream of chill music to relax and study to, a bunch of spoiled kids making faces, and something indistinguishably small being pointed at by a huge red arrow?

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jh29a@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
this move kinda got me to stop using youtube (for me, it also happens when my watch history is empty, and then it Specifically Nags that you need to unpause it for the feed to come back.) From personal reflection, I get how they could see people just enabling the watch history if they do this. (though right now, you don’t need to not have it paused, there just needs to be stuff in it for the feed)

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