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Seems YouTube recommendations does not adjust for context of keywords. I click on a Sport video not because of the sport but want to hear what the person has to say about XYX and not sports. Then YouTube now thinks I wants sports and there is no way of stating to the algorithm "Do not show me sports" because it will take the keywords without context.

They recommendations are fixated on YOU as in the last search or viewing instead of the sum of the content viewed. So a day of just looking at Cat videos equates to I want all Cat videos now and forever until I search for something else.

Also, there is not degree of separation for showing new / thought of content. Or simply put, a meson to walk through the bookstore and see something you never though of looking for and become interested.




I will watch things in a "private window" if I don't want it affecting my recommendation or later go and remove it from my watch history.

This seems to help me. Also I will mark videos as not interested.

But yeah I notice I watch one video and then I get a lot of recommendations related to it. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't.


Also note that the mobile app has an Incognito mode too.


It seems like the context is built with a simple bag of words model. One day I searched "how to make a mousetrap", the following day I got a recommended video about statistics, where the author explains something on a mouse population, and says "mouse" many many times.


You can click the three dots next to the video in your feed, click "Not Interested", and then in the "tell us why" section it sometimes exposes a choice "not interested in recommendations based on X video".




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