Do you get bad video recommendations in YouTube? You can do this

Not happy with the videos YouTube recommends? Researchers have investigated how users can influence the YouTube algorithm to make more interesting videos appear. Here’s What You Better Do And Don’t Do

YouTube Recommendations

You can use YouTube in different ways. For example, you can choose to only watch videos from channels to which you are subscribed. You also have the Shorts tab with short vertical videos, but a lot of people also check out the YouTube homepage, and let the algorithms recommend videos that they would find interesting. With varying degrees of success.

Research by Mozilla shows that it hardly helps to give a thumbs down to videos you don’t like. With that you only stop 12 percent of the unwanted recommendations. What works faster, but is even less efficient, is the ‘Not interested’ button. You can find it on the home screen of YouTube at the menu with the three dots next to each video. Not interested can only block 11 percent of bad video recommendations.

‘Do not recommend channel’

And then we come to the functions that allow you to exert the most influence on the algorithms of the video app. When you remove a video from your viewing history, that stops 29 percent of the unwanted videos. Removing a video from your history works in the app via: Library -> the three dots at a video under History -> Remove from watch history.

What works best is to indicate that you don’t want to see recommended videos from a particular channel at all. That stops 43 percent of bad recommendations. You can do that from: Home -> the menu with the three dots next to a video -> Do not recommend channel.

Even if you choose the best way, you will still see recommended videos in YouTube that you do not find interesting at all. Mozilla concludes that YouTube should provide more clarity to its users about how recommendations work, while also making its existing tools more effective. What do you think? Are you satisfied with the videos that YouTube presents you in the Home tab? Let us know in the comments.

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