Comment by infecto

Comment by infecto 4 days ago

26 replies

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Then be prepared to be surprised? I don't know why its better but it actually is night and day different. The best uneducated way I can describe it is YouTube sticks you into a model that only classifies people in large groups. Oh you watch video game streamers, you may like this alt-right talking heads. TikTok has a model that is tailored just for you. Oh you like video game streamers that play Tarkov? Here are some videos of other games similar to Tarkov.

pjc50 4 days ago

> you watch video game streamers, you may like this alt-right talking heads

This is something that infuriates me about youtube, to the extent that I wonder if it's deliberate. Those guys feel like the propaganda the platform wants to sell me, whereas on the Chinese platforms there isn't the sense of HERE IS THE TWO MINUTE HATE PROPAGANDA VIDEO CITIZEN you sometimes get on other platforms.

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  • infecto 4 days ago

    I wonder if its simply just a pattern over the last N years with Google where they maximize everything for ad revenue. I honestly don't know how TikToks ad revenue looks like but from a consumer point of view it appears for whatever reason they have mostly corporate ads where YouTube has the lowest value garbage (perhaps highest paying) ads on MLM and getting rich through real estate.

    Edit: As a weak comparison I think about Prime Streaming vs YouTube or Hulu. Ignoring that ads suck. Prime gives you a handful of various ads of real products/companies and have done in my opinion a smart job of minimizing the consumers negativity toward it. YouTube throws whatever highest paying garbage at you as much as possible. I tried Hulu once with ads, painful, every like 7mins you are getting an ad and often the same ad over and over.

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    • PittleyDunkin 4 days ago

      It's also worth noting that TikTok has the "TikTok Shop" that allows people to sell directly through the app. Perhaps this allows them to rely less heavily on advertising. I certainly see virtually zero ads on the app. Ideally this is because they've identified that I'm a terrible person to sell ads to, but perhaps they're just less aggressive about pushing them.

      > Prime gives you a handful of various ads of real products/companies and have done in my opinion a smart job of minimizing the consumers negativity toward it.

      Sure, I just stopped using prime when they introduced ads. It's also the number one complaint about the service and it regularly shows up any time the service is mentioned. I also can't remember a single ad played that was actually relevant to me.

      Curiously, I hear this less about Hulu despite them being equivalently bad in my experience. Perhaps hulu has better content.

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      • jacobgkau 4 days ago

        > Curiously, I hear this less about Hulu despite them being equivalently bad in my experience. Perhaps hulu has better content.

        I feel like Hulu established early enough that they were partially (or fully) ad-supported. I watched a show for free on Hulu with ads many years before I ever would have considered paying for a streaming service at all. Prime, on the other hand, is something people already pay for (usually for reasons other than just streaming, but that also reinforces that they're paying), so the ads probably come off as worse because of that, even though it's kind of backwards in some ways.

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paganel 4 days ago

Reminder that YT used to be pretty decent about (music) recommendations until, I’d say, 2015-ish, that’s how I discovered lots and lots of very cool and interesting (music) stuff that I listen to this day.

Not sure how they managed to screw that up, but screw it they did, and nowadays the sidebar, or even the plain search, has become unusable.

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robertlagrant 4 days ago

[flagged]

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  • infecto 4 days ago

    Or more likely, just a mystery for yourself.

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  • PittleyDunkin 4 days ago

    This is honestly kind of shocking. Do you just avoid looking up any kind of political video?

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    • infecto 4 days ago

      If you look at his most recent comment history you can see a trend of either being a troll or an unaware/aware jerk. Not entirely surprising.

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    • robertlagrant 4 days ago

      No, I watch political videos, but nothing as far to the right as the alt right, I don't think. Maybe once?

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      • myko 4 days ago

        I'm surprised. I've been blocking Jordan Peterson videos for years from YouTube, and I still get recommended something with him in it weekly. I also don't watch political videos generally on the platform.

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    • mh- 4 days ago

      I've also never gotten those sort of YT recommendations, and that is exactly what I do. I never click links to political videos. My entire recommended section is full of stuff from channels I've watched before, or very close to it.

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    • HeyLaughingBoy 4 days ago

      I found your comment surprising. I have literally never even considered looking for political videos online. They're enough of them shoved in my face everywhere I turn without me needing to seek them out.

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  • tumsfestival 4 days ago

    Then you either curate your feed very well or you don't use YouTube at all. Spend a couple of days indiscriminately watching whatever slop the algorithm recommends and you'll start seeing some eyebrow raising content.

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