Latest news with #YouTubeAlgorithm
Gizmodo
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
YouTube's Latest Update Shows That Online Monoculture Is Dead
Remember 'Baby Shark Dance?' How about 'Gangnam Style?' Those videos were among the most inescapable offerings of the YouTube canon, pumped into our lives by the last vestige of the internet monoculture: the Trending page. Now, a full decade since it was first introduced, YouTube announced it is ending its effort to inject top videos into everyone's feeds, opting instead to highlight popular content in specific niches. In a blog post, the company admits that the internet ecosystem has changed considerably since it first introduced the Trending page. 'Back when we first launched the Trending page in 2015, the answer to 'what's trending?' was a lot simpler to capture with a singular list of viral videos that everyone was talking about.' It said that fandoms and communities started developing on the platform, the idea of the universal 'viral' video started to fade, and visits to the Trending page had decreased 'significantly' over the last half-decade. So, it's going away. The four very broad categories of the original Trending page—Now, Music, Gaming and Movies— are going to get broken out into their own lists, which will include Trending Music Videos, Weekly Top Podcast Shows, and Trending Movie Trailers—with the existing Gaming Explore page set to replace the gaming category. Beyond that, YouTube is going to lean harder into its personalized recommendations. The company says it'll 'keep showing viewers the videos that we think they'll love' through its recommendation algorithm that should be pulling videos from viewer-specific niches rather than trying to identify universally popular videos. The 'Explore' menu, where the Trending page currently resides, will remain and offer non-curated video offerings if you'd still like to tap into the broader zeitgeist. The change is frankly a long time coming for YouTube, which has become the most popular streaming video service around, with more video content being uploaded daily than a person could watch in an entire lifetime. Videos now regularly rack up millions of views without ever cracking mainstream attention, simply thriving in a niche category. Unfortunately for YouTube, one of those niche categories is now AI slop—an invention that its parent company, Google, is actively participating in enabling. But earlier this month, YouTube announced that it'll be tamping down on AI by making it more difficult to monetize content that isn't 'original' and 'authentic.' So hopefully, if a video does manage to break containment and go mega-viral like the days of old, it won't be some AI monstrosity that managed to machine-learn its way to fame.
Android Authority
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Android Authority
I want the YouTube algorithm to stop doing this one annoying thing
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Over the years, the YouTube suggestion algorithm has become pretty complex. I've noticed that it can extrapolate my tastes very well based on my watch history, continuously tempting me to consume more videos. For example, I recently watched a live clip of The Prodigy at Coachella. My home screen feed then filled up with not only concert clips from other shows by The Prodigy, but also other artists that I enjoy, such as Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Air, and more. Notably, these artists sound nothing like The Prodigy, but the algorithm is smart enough to assume that my tastes will align with them based on my watch history. I'm not going to lie: I had to stop myself from spending all day watching live concert clips. This is impressive and something Google has probably spent millions of dollars refining, as it keeps people glued to YouTube and fueling the money-printing machine that it's become. Curiously, while the algorithm is intelligent enough to do that, it is still completely inept at something else: understanding when I search for a video not because I'm deeply interested in the topic, but because I need help doing a specific task. Even now, in 2025, this still seems to throw the algorithm for a loop. The YouTube algorithm and one-time tasks C. Scott Brown / Android Authority Let me give you a real-world example of the algorithm's deficiency. I have a pair of expensive German leather boots that I wear nearly every day and love with all my heart. Since I wear them so much, they undergo quite a bit of wear and tear. In the past, I've taken them to a cobbler for a refresh every few years, but here in California, that is expensive — and not getting any cheaper. I figured it can't be that difficult to do annual maintenance on my boots by myself, and doing so would certainly save me money. I went straight to YouTube with this thought. I searched for 'leather boot refresh' and found dozens of high-quality videos going over the tools, polishes, conditioners, and other materials needed for this task, as well as step-by-step instructions. I watched one video — just one! — and knew I could do this myself. I bought the products the video suggested, and when they had all arrived, I re-watched the same video several times as I followed its instructions. My boots look great now — they're like new! Watching one 'How To' video about a particular topic should not be enough for the algorithm to flood your feed with other 'How To' videos on that topic. One would think that the YouTube algorithm would understand that this process I went through is not at all similar to watching a live concert clip. I am not interested in buying leather boots. I am not looking for other tips on fixing my boots. I am not going to open a cobbler shop. I had a one-time problem — refreshing my boots — and used one YouTube video to solve that problem. If I ever need help again, I'll search for it (or just watch the same video once more). Despite how obvious this would seem, this didn't stop the algorithm from filling my home page with other videos about refreshing leather boots. Seriously, for a few days after I did the refresh, roughly half of my home page was videos related to leather, boots, or cobbler things. Shouldn't we be beyond this by now? Shouldn't the algorithm be able to tell the difference between video hours spent watching stuff I enjoy and hours spent using YouTube as a tool? This makes me want to use YouTube less, not more Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority Remember how I had to hold myself back from bingeing entire concerts after watching just one Coachella clip? That's what has made YouTube so successful. Unfortunately, this problem — its inability to prevent itself from suggesting irrelevant content based on one-time needs — actively makes the home page worse, working against its success. In other words, my feed being covered with boot videos makes me want to navigate away from YouTube. It's the exact opposite of Google's intentions! Has the YouTube algorithm filled your feed with 'How To' content before? 0 votes Yes, this happens all the time NaN % Yes, this has happened once or twice NaN % No, this has never happened NaN % I am not sure if this has happened NaN % Based on this, one would think that Google would prioritize preventing this issue. However, given that YouTube has been around for 20 years (man, I'm old) and this problem still exists, it clearly isn't as much of a priority for Google as I would think. You'd think Google would want to fix this, considering it makes my home feed less addicting. To Google's credit, a little more than a week after this happened, my feed cleared all references to boots and leather. It seems the algorithm is smart enough now to understand that I didn't click on any of its suggestions, so I'm not really interested in more boot videos. But what if this wasn't something related to boot repair, and instead something more sensitive? What if I went to YouTube for a solution to a health-related issue, and suddenly my feed was a beacon to anyone who wants to know about my medical condition? What if I watched a video about how to solve a marital problem, and my feed became filled with other videos about marital problems I am not having? YouTube should be working for us, not against us. Have you faced a similar problem? What did you search for that the algorithm then pummelled you with other related videos? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to pick something in the poll above, too!
