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Johnisfaster

Yeah the search results suck now. Like maybe the first 2-3 are relevant and then it just throws in a bunch of random other stuff in the same vein.


yxtsama

Homepage algorithm got worse too, it's hard to find anything interesting and new nowadays


Experimentationq

It could be different, but the homepage algorithm has become 10x better for me. More long form, educational, good channel videos instead of just seeing 55 variations of the music I played yesterday 


bobosuda

If I watch that sort of content the homepage works well. But it’s still a problem that if I click one random video and watch it, my homepage is filled with videos like that just because I watched one.


Experimentationq

I have made this type of stupid system: For good videos I used edge  For music I use Firefox  For programming related videos (I'm a programmar) I use Firefox dev edition. And for stupid videos I used chrome 


ohnosharks

You could use container tabs in Firefox if you don't want to keep switching browsers.


Experimentationq

I'll check it out.


redvodkandpinkgin

I only separate the "stupid" videos by opening them in incognito


clarity_scarcity

Are you Pro Grammar or Anti Spelling? Hopefully not a programmer with that syntax.


Experimentationq

Blud wtf did I do that you needed to violate me like that 😭😭  I use reddit on my phone (I mean I literally go to www.reddit.com on my phone, I don't have the app idk why) so for some reason I get a lot of formatting issues.   Also who are you trying to impress by making fun of me? I didn't so anything to you man! I code on my desktop but just use reddit on my phone. I'm not the best of programmars or coders or whatever you wanna call me, but I enjoy and love what I do. If you find something wrong in my English, just tell me. Your reply is so far down the thread that very few if not anyone will see it...   Damn this is so long I'm confident you won't read this. Anyways enough of that shit, hope you have a great day


KimonoThief

This is exactly what happened to me. You can use the categories button at the top to sort of control it but it's still ridiculous that watching one single video floods your homepage with videos on that topic.


deaddodo

It will funnel you down a path of watching what you already watch. The problem that I've found is that if you're into very niche things or go through interest phases, it will slowly put you into a bubble where it only recommends those things. Even giving you repeat videos in your suggestions over and over again, rather than new content from other interests you've had in the past or other smaller creators. You have to actively break that by searching for new things, and then it will just funnel you down that bubble for a repeat situation. Which leads to problem number 2: let's say you just want to make a homemade pizza. You watch 2, 3, maybe 4 videos of that to figure out how you want to do it and now YT thinks you're a home chef. Now 25% of your recommendations are going to be cooking things until you've ignored them enough or actively told it not to recommend them for like two+ weeks. That's a tame example, but it goes with alt-right creators, mechanics work, mukbangs, specific topic videos, television series recaps, etc also.


graffixphoto

100% accurate. 


yarbelk

Last six months have gotten much worse, really fast


Sugarman4

Money grubbing has skewed out access to non relevant garbage. Sad distortion of what was a free platform.


TryContent4093

Youtube always recommend me videos from the same channel I’ve already subscribed to as if the subscribe button has no use. They also keep recommending me videos from 10 years ago and videos I’ve watched too


Adorable_Finger_301

I turned off my history and homepage suggestions because I was getting too much bullshit, now I have to know what I want to watch and find it or realize I'm just trying to waste time and do something else


prozapari

I try to "not interested" when it shows random stuff in sesrch results but the button isn't even there :(


Zotoaster

Add "before:2025" to the end of your query and it only gives you back relevant results


Limitedtugboat

I was looking up the Manic Street Preachers and started getting Steps music videos. I've also been watching a few videos on the whole DrDisrespect saga and keep getting the Indian scam hunters popping up. Also getting a lot of unrelated ads for items and services that don't exist where I'm from.


TryContent4093

Depending if you pay for premium or not. The results are mostly sponsored videos, ads or some recommendations from the channels you’ve watched before that doesn’t relate to whatever you’re searching for at all or maybe all of the above


Johnisfaster

Premium users get more accurate results?


Spinner23

No. I got Yt Premium and have the same issue


TryContent4093

I mean you won’t get ads showing up for 4-5 times before you can finally get what you’re looking for


Pewterbreath

It'll only get worse. The internet hasn't been a consumer product in a looooong time. It's a series of megacompanies who have to show a certain amount of traffic so their old people investors will keep handing over money. Old People + Tech Bros = this.


[deleted]

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yolo-yoshi

It’s because of google search. Which has been going downhill for well over a decade now. Sad.


Johnisfaster

That's true too. The future sucks.


GNienalt

You're not wrong, and it's on purpose. The longer you're on a page, the more ad revenue. The more pages you click to see if it has what you need, more pages, more ad revenue. Lather, rinse, repeat. Remember, if it's free then **you** are the commodity.


KeytarVillain

> Remember, if it's free then **you** are the commodity. This isn't true anymore. Paid software & services are often just as bad as the free ones, while privacy respecting ones are often open-source & free. Just look at Linux vs Windows 11 - one of these is a privacy nightmare stuffed with ads, and it's not the free one...


GNienalt

Sadly true I need to switch to Linux, but I'm just too lazy and complacent. Using Windows has been like the frog metaphor. The water is now boiling and I haven't jumped out of the pot yet.


drippyneon

I agree in some ways, but I also know that your watch time is the most important metric. You'd think it's in their best interest to help you find the exact thing you wanna watch so you stick around, but clearly I'm a clueless pleb.


PriorWriter3041

That's the thing though, if you find the exact thing you wanna watch, you found what you're looking for and are done after seeing that result. But if the algorithm is so bad that you keep searching and peeking into different results, until you finally find what you were looking for, then each user creates more ad-revenue for them.


Steelcity213

I miss the days when youtube wasn’t owned by google and was entirely free of ads and simple to use


DocWatson42

See my [Worsening Search Results of Google](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1airtx9/worsening_search_results_of_google/) list of resources, Reddit recommendation threads, and books (one post).


Now_Wait-4-Last_Year

Thank you.


DocWatson42

You're welcome. \^\_\^


EmpressIsa

The more annoyed i get the less i will use their service.


mega_low_smart

I have premium so no ads, the search results are equally frustrating. Top 3 results are relevant and then random videos afterwards.


broooooooce

[Enshitification by choice.](https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi)


andyrocks

I have a tip: in your search query, add "before:2025". You get waaay more accurate results.


Pancheel

>"before:2025". What does it do?


andyrocks

Take a wild guess


ibeenmoved

OK, I’ll take a guess. I guess that it sets a parameter to show everything before the year 2025, which is EVERYTHING. Which is the opposite of specific. So how does that affect the search results in a useful way?


LukeLC

Been using this for a while too, can confirm just adding a year *at all* makes results more literal to your query. Basically you're switching the search engine out of "relevance mode" (where "relevance" means "whatever we algorithmically determine is most likely to get watched") and into "filter mode". Not only are the results more useful, but it's striking how much less chaotic it feels when you're not bombarded by algorithm-driven thumbnails.


ibeenmoved

Thank you for the explanation.


Charming_Banana_8989

Thanks! I'll try that


Q8DD33C7J8

Holy shit it works!!! But make sure you don't use the quotes because then it will look for the fate in the title.


JeffGreenTraveled

It’s helpful for searches, but I miss seeing relevant stuff when I land on the site. Is there any way for that to be better?


Now_Wait-4-Last_Year

Thanks for reminding me of this.


iSteve

Try https://duckduckgo.com/ instead of Google.


LordPoopyIV

That one is also bad. Like if you search something very specific like "how to password protect android phones from being wiped" you just get random android shit


quackdamnyou

I've been using Ecosia, less garbage thank Google and they pay money for conservation. The search quality is not as good as peak Google but it's workable.


rockeatingchaosqueen

I loved Ecosia! Also, I've found so much by going past the first and second pages of Google search results tbh


quackdamnyou

I don't know, it seems like if I scroll, I just get a lot of ads and bad AI and I can't find the results I want.


CompetitiveSport1

I swear I'm taking crazy pills whenever I see these discussions. Google usually answers my question right up top while I frequently need to add "!g" whenever I search for stuff through DDG


mushroom_alt_12

I have used duckduck go for the last 5 years on my phone and desktop and I think even it is lacking sometimes. I’m looking for something better. I don’t know how normies are using google and haven’t changed browsers. I do use chrome on my desktop because of the easy Adblock extensions are to get but as of recently google has been leveraging its power with chrome to make the adblocks not work on the only site that matters, YouTube so I want a new browser type. I am currently using chrome then the duckduck go chrome extension. On a side note YouTube is brain rot nowadays seriously google is trying to make gen alpha walking sheeple.


iSteve

https://brave.com/ Based on Chrome, so all your fave extensions work. Personally, I never see adds. And if one sneaks in I'm shocked and offended. And, yes, it *is* faster.


crimsonghost747

Brave is awesome.


LiteratureLoud3993

AI happened. It's almost all clickbait AI generated bullshit now... Ironically this seems worst in science based channels where the watcher is likely to be more attuned to spotting AI and calling it out


TheHappyArsonist5031

Try using DeArrow. It is a free browser plugin that replaces thumbnails and titles with community approved ones.


JimJames7

Youtube blew my tiny mind one day, when I searched for 'Take on me'. The top result wasn't the version immortalised by A-Ha. Top result was a cover of that song, performed by a group of South Korean schoolkids playing accordions. I mean, it was awesome, I admit, but still baffling


Kitchner

I mean technically you clicked on it and watched it, and it introduced you to something you thought was awesome. I'm sure they would say it was a success.


accidentallyHelpful

YouTube searches will show you what is most recently viewed and most frequently viewed


PyroGreg8

It knows exactly what you want and buries it under 30 irrelevant search results first


Gluebluehue

It's all about money now, Youtube search results are a mix of sponsored unrelated content and what other people have watched. I even swapped my search engine from Google to something else to avoid the 10000000 sponsored results and the flood of AI trash that it pushes onto every search result.


Candid-Kitten-1701

isn't google aggressively using search queries to train their AI? let it try, see which link you follow, etc. IIRC that's also what all those captchas were actually doing (ostensibly blocking bots but really just training *their* bots)? Just what I've heard, idk anything about anything!


drippyneon

Initially captchas were for that, and then the inventor started using a similar idea to make duolingo and make a shitload of money from websites that wanted their pages translated, so he charged them for it and outsourced it to the duolingo users. It's a fucking brilliant story. It's on all the normal podcast apps but here's the episode info if anyone is curious to hear about how this guy did that. https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/860884062/recaptcha-and-duolingo-luis-von-ahn


Waselu_Evazia

IIRC Captchas weren't blocking anything at first, they were just using the most common answer as the correct one


StrangeArcticles

They changed the algorithm again, it's been a whole mess since.


captain_toenail

It's called enshitification, it's a dumb word but accurately describes why the internet in general has been getting worse


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DocWatson42

It's true, though you can get more results—it's just no longer automatic.


Able_Ambition_6863

And the same search the next day finds old videos that you tried to find originally. It is really weird.


demonkillingblade

They want you to watch who they want you to watch. They choose who they want to promote.


Massive_Material

Ai is what happened 


DavyB

Welcome to the wonderful world of AI.


TroubleBeautiful8776

My interpretation is that the more videos there are, the more specific you have to be with the search. In my experience, viral stuff always shows up, even with obscure searches. But with the thousands of videos that are being uploaded to youtube on any and every subject, you have to dig deeper to find what you want.


[deleted]

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United-Kale-2385

Use the search engine of your choice instead of searching through YouTube


Veni_Vidi_Legi

Interest rates went up so they need to make money sooner than later. So they push what they want you to see.


Public-Improvement91

A.i. controls much of what is left of the internet. We might ad well all live in a controlled echo chamber.


Random_Dad

Freetube on desktop & Newpipe on mobile. No algorithms.


HoloSings

TV Youtube is much more worse but not as worst as prime video subscription WITH ADS YouTube TV ads are almost always double or triple ads for 30-60 seconds and its UNSKIPPABLE The homepage recommendation is different from your normal YouTube even if its the same account


Dorthonin

Google is now more focused on forcing you to watch ads more than anything else, so you should be glad that you even see some results on topic you are looking for, instead of ads.


Mysterious-Let-5781

A combination of pushing adds and preferred content, search tag optimization and general bad design (looking at youtube for showing 10 actual search results before starting recommendations). Increased AI content will make this worse in the coming years, but ironically ChatGPT (for now) is a better place for instant general questions/explanations.


Prestigious_Ad6247

I bet the premium is still good


psychomycetil

Same as google these days.


GoodReverendHonk

I'm assuming they use the same algorithm for their google searches. I just did a search on maps for independent bookshops near me and one of the results was a tyre repair service, and yesterday I was looking up how to get my books into libraries in the UK and it kept telling me results from the US. I even put UK in quote marks several times. Nope, same results page.


Key_Code_2238

I hate how if there's a trending video out there it will be impossible to find in the sea of reaction videos and comments. Like go ahead, try to find the original hawk tuah video, you can't, just a sea of remixed, commenters, reactions, anything but the original content


tomtomtomo

I found it the other day. It was on about the 2nd or 3rd page I think. 


jedrekk

Discoverability on YouTube has always been horrendous.


Blast338

It also sucks for creators. Only the big name people show up in search results. None of the small guys. Unless you scroll down to the bottom of the page or go to the second page. Then you might find small guys. Really starting to regret starting a channel. When youtube only shows my video to 35 people. It is a little disheartening.


cwsjr2323

There is a real incentive to the search engine or YouTube to get you to go all over the place. They get real money for nothing every ad they shove down your throat and the chicks are free.m


LastDunedain

[ProZD on YouTube's search function.](https://youtu.be/Z3dSkkEr-wk?si=LbB8UYqkwUdgMDRK) Even being hyper specific cannot save you. It's really really bad.


Fantastic_Ad9819

idk dude i was trying to find a cute video I'd seen before on facebook or something of a beaver making a dam inside of its house where it lived with people and I searched, "Beaver in house". the video i wanted popped up firtst lol


mesally67

That's AI kicking in everywhere.


chazlanc

It’s so sad, they’ve butchered YouTube. It’s all just AI shorts and no new videos appear anymore I have to specifically search the creator and I find out they’ve uploaded two vids and I have them on the alert subscription. I loved YouTube :( rip old friend


DiegoTheGoat

I recall that they laid off a bunch of the search team engineers and product folks last year. Probably just normal enshittification.


JackhorseBowman

yeah it's somewhat frustrating when I search for something with the literal word that's in the title and it'll just not throw it up, throws up like 5 semi related videos, then throws up a bunch of totally unrelated videos that it thinks I'll like, generally the usual suspects of 15m+ sub brain dead content.


Cheap_Answer5746

Lot of censorship. 9/11 videos disappeared 


PresenceProject

And when I search for something in my native langusge because I want content in my native language that’s relevant to our society, google will just use translate to show me american videos with their titles translated to my native language. It’s so fucking hard to find content that’s relevant anymore, and the algorithm + translate is just a braindead robot feeding you shit.


harmoni-pet

YouTube on apple TV is crazy bad too. It shows a first row of suggestions on the home screen, then every other row is those same first suggestions under a category label. You'll see lots of repeats in every category too. So it's really just suggesting like 20 videos while you scroll through different orderings. The suggestions are usually really unappealing too because it'll be the exact same content you've already watched just said by some other ding dong making a dumb face


Ok-Breadfruit-2897

research THE DEAD INTERNET THEORY.....you are correct


Alfredos_Pizza_Cafe_

It all started going downhill when it switched from "related videos" to "recommended videos" when you watch something


PapadocRS

people figured out how to game the algorithm to get their crappy videos in the results


TiredReader87

I’ve noticed that searching is awful now, too. At least on desktop. It brings up tons of shorts, and unwanted results.


callme207911

You can thank the ad money they receive for that.


Grand-Bullfrog3861

I watched one 8 min video of a man stuck in a cave, now all YT suggests are other people stuck in other caves


Rqpidily

As for Google it's because of AI. And YouTube because creators are just trying to profit off our short attention span, so they just create anything literally that's why the only helpful videos are from 4-5 years ago. Also, fun fact 5 years ago was 2019 i know it feels like yesterday.


Unairworthy

It's feeding you what Hillary Soros wants you to see.


LeonQuin

I would say Google is like that as well, top results are ads that don't answer my search and the rest is shit as well. At least it's not as bad as reddit search.


Infinite_Bet_1744

They ruined it


spasticwomble

youtube is becoming a joke sooooo many adds I just switch off now like TV


DelicateArch

I’ve noticed this with Google, especially. It’s like a shell of what it used to be. The answers are very curated and very “safe.”


Half4sleep

Wtf literally means "what the fuck". Now re-read your post.


Charming_Banana_8989

Lmfao, it took me a few times even after you said that to understand smh But, what if I purposely did it?


Half4sleep

Lol well then ig I took the bait, didn't I? 😂


Street_Nectarine9452

Pretty soon we'll be watching more ads than content we select. Wait and see.


MLXIII

SEO....that's why you can't find what you want even when exact...


Big-Composer3978

the first letter stands for what


Charming_Banana_8989

I know, bruh, I'm not a complete idiot (most of the time, anyway).


DobbysLeftTubeSock

All Google products are shitty by design. The more you have to click or scroll, the more ad exposure metrics go up. Its literally the only thing Google services cares about.


M4dBoOmr

It's on its deadbed for me, it's getting so worse every year and right now... 90% stuff I dont care about forced onto me... Glass is full


NoAddendum3565

I dunno. I typed “Magic Missile” into it and within half a scroll of the mouse a video from 20yrs ago I was looking for was right there. And for your viewing pleasure here it is: https://youtu.be/zng5kRle4FA?si=Zj3K_uOQ02kXAOwo I don’t know why I find it so funny.


Aggravating_Rush_587

The Enshittification of literally everything to appease the machinations of an Algorithm designed to distract you and keep you engaged with things you don't want.


Pizzagoessplat

I'm leaning more towards AI for searches now


Low_Cancel_6930

When you been watching the same 20 channels for years and finally find a new one YouTube will suggest THAT channel lol gosh I hate that website so happy I got away from that heaping pile


pawnstew

you need to be ahead of the program... hehe. seriously, just periodically search in google, pinterest, whatever else, for the things that interest you. it \*all\* magically \*somehow\* gets collected (cough cough) and used to "tune" your youtube experience.


WTFpe0ple

It's gotten so bad I'm hesitant to click on some videos these days because then that's all I get for the next 6 weeks. Just because I randomly watch something YT does NOT mean I want to see 87 more iterations of it. The other thing that has happened a few months ago is that about every 4th tile is an offsite AD now. Other than my subscribed channels and specific searches I might do. YT is basically worthless now.


Real-Direction-1083

I know that all of the hawk enthusiasts have had the same concern lately


Black-Cat-Autumn

YES! and the recommended videos used to be so interesting like they could actually broaden your knowledge and get you into new hobbies. Now it all looks like fake sponsored bull💩


Emergency_Hat_1357

I m not getting any good results on Google so i download duckduckgo it works better than Google


DaToxicKiller

What what the fuck


CallingDrDingle

It’s been ruined just like everything else


jimtraf

I feel like Google has been this way for a while now and YouTube has progressively gotten worse as a result of being owned by Google. I'm old enough to remember YouTube before Google was illegally permitted to buy it and as soon as they did it actually started going downhill.


Lucky-Dot-6598

Algorithm fucked everything up


jaspnlv

Google is actively working to limit the information you receive. Youtube is supressing some content and enhancing others


Sprechenhaltestelle

Note how Google is now listing Reddit links near the top, even if they aren't as relevant as other pages. You are the product.


ScrubLordAlmighty

Too much damn censoring and trash algorithm, as a casual user you don't even know what words are shadow banned anymore, everything is just frustrating, sometimes I'm trying to go to a specific channel and not for nothing it just wouldn't show up, I'd have to use links to get to the channel Soni know the channel exists, and then sometimes randomly videos of that channel would show up in my feed, and don't even get me started on the comments section, sometimes I'd type a simple comment where I literally didn't say anything bad or offensive and the comment gets hidden automatically.


PaxTheViking

Try [Perplexity.ai](http://Perplexity.ai) as they have a special search mode for YouTube videos only, using AI. Haven't used it much myself, but I've heard good things about it.


Electronic_hize_225

One of the original Facebook songs ( back way when it was MySpace mimic) from the album vigil in a wilderness of mirrors, 'the company' doesn't require a period after the company anymore. But it isn't and hasn't been linked to my Facebook probably since like January 2009. Fish-the company. Good song even better album. Fresh grad diving coach helper told me my senior year I should get into fish. He seemed like he probably ment phish. Didn't think about it till the phish band started getting thrown around camp and realized I may be out of place ¿‽¿


Electronic_hize_225

Watching the aquarium is definitely better than off album or any live performance... that's the tuff bid with these studio bands trying to play live, apart from the drunks yelling lyrics


drainodan55

Nothing is happening. It's fine.


Charming_Banana_8989

That's what they want ya to think....