The bizarre, dismal page you see if you open YouTube without an account.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
This is always what my YouTube homepage looks like because I only access it in ghostery browser, using a ghost tab by default (like incognito/private/inprivate, but because ghostery, also blocks tracking, cookies, etc.)
I typically completely close the browser between links (it’s my default link handling browser for Lemmy), so it gets reset frequently enough to have nothing on home if I actually navigate there.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
Ok but I'm pretty sure it's like this because if they make recommendations they go from being a social media company to a publisher, so they can't make recommendations not based on what things you watch through the algorithm. And if you don't have an account they aren't (at least officially) tracking what you watch to make recommendations.
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On the home screen yes, but you do still get search results.
You get a handful of results, after which you just get "recommended" AI slop shorts and completely irrelevant "suggestions".
If YT Red gave me the option to disable Shorts and "suggestions" I might pay for it but you can't pay your way out of this hellhole.
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My recommended is decent but every now and then it'll try to throw some weird shit in there. Loves recommending me off-shoot Fox channels because I have the main one blocked. Seems like every few months it pops up. But yeah, I get a lot of MTB, Motocross, and OSRS stuff cause it's what I tend to watch. Some random car YouTubers (Rob Dahm ILY) and random video essays about interesting stuff.
Oh.....yeah. I don't get ANY of that. I get weird random shit, and I'm like "Yeah, sure, let's watch this video on the mating habbits of ladybugs! Why not?"
Spoiler alert, the concept of cuckolding absolutely exists in the world of ladybugs. She makes her mate watch as she fucks other ladybugs. No, I'm not joking. That's a thing. Thanks youtube!
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Its not this simple, it looks like this to me on my fairly locked down browser (firefox), but on a fresh profile (image attached), that page is populated. I assume its a cookie setting, as I see the same behavior when I turn off tracking protection and ad blockers. I didn't play around beyond that.
It’s cookies for sure. I use Firefox Focus on my phone and it clears cookies after every session. Blank front page of YT.
Private browsing window with Librewolf on my computer? Blank front page.
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Tried this on a private window, and yes, that's what it looks like. Thought I'd click on Shorts and let the first 3 seconds of the opening auto-play video play. Then back to the home page and wow, full of absolute trash.
Holy shit it works, and transforms the front page into an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE
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Holy shit it works, and transforms the front page into an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE
I'm like, "Is this what normal people in 2025 watch?" I feel like an alien on earth, except the planet changed and not me.
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Signed in? There's your problem.
Start fresh - search for, I dunno, "bread recipes" and bang-zoom, your suggested next video is something about how wonderful fascism is.
Good to know. As my posting history on Lemmy will show I definitely watch bread recipes videos.
In fact I became a mod for c/cooking today. -
I don't know what you're talking about. I love my reccomended videos. I just watched a video about the reasons so many old subway stations use tile on the walls.
Spoiler alert, it's because in the early 19th century these stations were poorly lit, and white tile reflects light. So it made a small amount of light act as a bigger source of light. Plus it doesn't degrade and break down like paint or wood does over time.
Just one example of something that I would have never even wondered, but now I watched an interesting video explaining it. There was more to it than that, but I'm not going to go point by point of the video.
I never spent enough time on YouTube for it to develop its algorithm for me. I watch like 2 videos a week maybe, usually searching for something specific, and most of the recs for me have always been obscure clickbait I'm not interested in seeing
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
Better than whatever brains of garbage would come up of it was just giving you a default based off what's popular.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
They probably got tired of those videos where people see how quickly you can fall down an alt-right rabbit hole directly from the home page on a fresh account.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
The only way to use YouTube.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
I can get this when logged in too! Just disable history! Its great.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
Only positive change google has made in the last decade
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I'm like, "Is this what normal people in 2025 watch?" I feel like an alien on earth, except the planet changed and not me.
WHY IS EVERYTHING SO FAST AND THERE IS SO MUCH TEXT AND MANY FILTERS AND EFFECTS STOP MAKING SUCH DEEP EYE CONTACT WITH ME AND MOVING AROUND AT A BREAKNECK PACE
I have ADHD and this is NOT made for me, it makes me DEEPLY uncomfortable. Every video seems like that gif of Morshu from Link: Faces of Evil sped up to hell moving around but explaining a shitty fake lifehack or something.
I hate it all.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
It's been like this for quite a while. What about it?
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I assume its a cookie setting, as I see the same behavior when I turn off tracking protection and ad blockers.
It goes way deeper than that. Fingerprinting is a whole thing. Your IP, combined with some characteristics about your browser, operating system and hardware... pretty unique.
Interesting to see what YT "thinks" about you.
I see 1995 twice there.
Nostalgia marketing operates on roughly 20 to 30 year cycles, so we're dead center of 90s nostalgia. As the current decade wears on, there should be a gradual shift to 2000s era nostalgia (and another revival of the 80s, the most marketable decade). I can't say that looming war in the middle east doesn't give me those warm Bush 2 era vibes, though we are a bit early for it.
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Welcome to Youtube, person who has never been to Youtube before. Here's what we have to offer:
The best thing about this. No shorts.
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Yes, that's what I meant. The home screen will just continue to inform you that your history is off. You can only sign out or browse your subscriptions.
I'm curious on what your solution to this would be? There is already a page to browse your subscriptions, and a page to browse the popular stuff.
The home page specifically is to find new videos based on your history, so with no history what would it show?
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I don't know what you're talking about. I love my reccomended videos. I just watched a video about the reasons so many old subway stations use tile on the walls.
Spoiler alert, it's because in the early 19th century these stations were poorly lit, and white tile reflects light. So it made a small amount of light act as a bigger source of light. Plus it doesn't degrade and break down like paint or wood does over time.
Just one example of something that I would have never even wondered, but now I watched an interesting video explaining it. There was more to it than that, but I'm not going to go point by point of the video.
That's the type of stuff I love YouTube for. I don't watch it like I used to but when I do it'll usually recommend me something else I'd enjoy.
...in addition to shorts I don't want to watch and tons of videos I've already watched. At least I don't get the right wing trash most people get.
