this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024

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Privacy

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Youtube is now unusable without a frontend (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by DanTDM@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have an extension that can individually disable all the most useless/addicting components of the Youtube site, such as shorts and whatnot. On the search page, I have turned on:

hide Shorts

hide For You

hide Trending

hide 'People Also Searched For'

hide Search Categories

hide Promoted Videos

hide Promoted Websites

hide Suggested Products

Do you know what Youtube has started doing? They are now inserting engagement slop DIRECTLY into the search results, as seen in the image above. It's literally a short, yet it's inserted like a video so you're forced to see it. The only possible way to remove it is by using a privacy frontend, as even on incognito mode, Youtube will look at the three videos you've watched and start inserting shit based off that.

Louis Rossman is right, they all have rapist mentalities... "just let me stick it in"

all 15 comments

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[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’ve noticed that the search results are getting less and less relevant to what I’m actually looking for. I guess one day the search bar will disappear like the headphone jack of the iPhone.

[–] velox_vulnus@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

You don't need search, all you need is watch. Watch the video, follow the directive of the techo-judgement day Jesus AI, beep-boop.

[–] BaumGeist@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Louis Rossman is my Alex Jones. He's angry, compelling, and talking about something that makes him seen like a conspiracy theorist to normies. Unlike Jones, though, he's usually right (if not always, I haven't fact checked everything he's ever said). It's extremely cathartic to see someone use such extreme rhetoric to talk about privacy and software ownership and right to repair; e.g. it's not "advertiser's entitlement," it's "rapist mentality."

Ironically, youtube's inability to completely differentiate between people at the same IP has accidentally gotten my non-techie roommate into him too. I never shared his videos with her, never said anything about him, and one day I hear his voice as she browses the web. I'm so proud of her.

My least favorite thing about the "engagement friendly" slop in youtube's search results is that it takes up HALF of the results. Because clearly what I expect from SEARCHING for something is to dredge up a bunch of shit that ranges from tangentially related to completely unrelated.

For example, I too just searched a song. Let's see how that went:

7 results
4 "people also watched" videos
5 results
2 "More from [band name]" videos
2 results
3 "people also searched for" suggestions
2 results
3 "For you" vids (IS IT THE FUVKING SEARCH RESULTS I ASKED FOR???? BECAUSE IF NOT, IT'S NOT REALLY "FOR ME," IS IT?)
2 Results
3 "From related searches"
2 results

That's 20 results to 15 irrelevant pieces of ADHD triggering visual clutter. Luckily the results were actually relevant, unlike whatever you're getting.

To all the commenters saying "I have X, I don't have this problem": I have adblock, I don't have this problem, YOU'RE MISSING THE POINT:

YOUTUBE SEARCH IS BROKEN BY DEFAULT. The largest video sharing site on the internet is BROKEN BY DEFAULT. It shouldn't require extra software to function properly when functioning properly requires less work on the server's side

[–] mvilain@fedia.io 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I disabled History and only see my channel subscriptions. None of the options above appear in my Youtube feed.

[–] kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah i did this until they make the entire homepage blank if you keep history off. Very annoying.

[–] 100@fedia.io 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

but why would your homepage not be your sub box

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they don't subscribe

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’m really surprised at how bad of an experience people are having! I have a bunch of channels I follow and people I interact with. Some big channels but most small. I love channels with only a few hundred to a few thousand viewers. The creators post their videos and then I talk to them through the comments. We have some really interesting conversations.

Lots of other channels I follow I don’t interact with but still really enjoy. A lot of hobby channels are amazing! I generally avoid the news and politics stuff, though I still occasionally watch Ukraine videos or Trump trial stuff. I get sick of those after one video though!

[–] Firipu@startrek.website 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, tbh, the insane focus on privacy makes YouTube a lot worse, no shit. The algorithm just throws shit at the wall hoping it sticks, what do you expect?

Make a burner account only for YouTube. See how the quality goes up because you can follow people you are actually interested in.

I personally really don't see the privacy risk with that? (then again, I gave up on the idea of true privacy online years ago. Privacy through obscurity is enough. I don't care big companies recognize my habits, as long as they don't know 100% exactly who I am.)

[–] onion@feddit.de 0 points 4 months ago

You can subscribe without an account using third party clients like NewPipe or FreeTube

[–] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 0 points 4 months ago

Uh, yeah. Use , give search term, go to tab or corresponding functionality.

Why would you use youtube's internal search anyway? It's age-old knowledge that such platforms use algorithms to "engage" (manipulate) you.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ya'll need FreeTube.

[–] rwhitisissle@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 months ago

It's "y'all" - as in a contraction of "you all."