YouTube

Study finds that you can’t really change YouTube recommendations even if you try

Ben Schoon | Sep 20 2022 - 8:42 am PT

YouTube is full of millions of hours of content, and the platform’s recommendations system helps to push content you might be interested in to the home page and various recommended content areas. But according to a new study, the methods of controlling YouTube recommendations don’t really do much to influence what shows up.

While the video you’re watching is generally the focus of any given page on YouTube, you’ll find recommendations all over the page on the web, or even through apps. Recommended videos are displayed alongside or underneath videos as they’re playing, and autoplay will push you right into another video at the end of the current one, with more recommendations shown in the few seconds before that next video starts playing.

It’s not uncommon, though, for these recommendations to get a little out of hand, and push topics that you aren’t actually interested in.

YouTube says that you can help tailor your recommendations by using the “dislike” button, “not interested” on recommendations, as well as removing content from your watch history or using the option to “stop recommending” a specific channel.

According to research done by the Mozilla Foundation using an open-source tool called “RegretsReporter,” these buttons are largely ineffective at actually changing what shows up in your recommendations. This conclusion was reached after analyzing nearly half a billion videos watched by participants. The open-source tool placed a generic “stop recommending” button on the page, which would automatically choose one of the four options as a part of different groups of participants, including a control group which sent no feedback to YouTube itself.

Despite using the various options that YouTube presented, these buttons weren’t considered effective at removing “bad” recommendations, the recommendations that directly included content that users had expressed displeasure with. The most effective tools were for telling YouTube not to recommend content from a specific channel, as well as removing content from a user’s watch history. The “not interested” button had the least influence over recommendations.

In a statement from YouTube passed along to The Verge, a spokesperson criticized the report.

Importantly, our controls do not filter out entire topics or viewpoints, as this could have negative effects for viewers, like creating echo chambers. We welcome academic research on our platform, which is why we recently expanded Data API access through our YouTube Researcher Program. Mozilla’s report doesn’t take into account how our systems actually work, and therefore it’s difficult for us to glean many insights.

Ultimately, though, it’s become abundantly clear that user’s are quite frustrated with recommendation algorithms such as these. With the rise of short-form video apps that thrive on recommending similar content, such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube’s own Shorts, controls such as these have been largely seen as ineffective among users who often end up seeing the same topic over and over again, even if they aren’t actually interested. These platforms are designed to boost user engagement above all else, which they’re certainly effective at.

Mozilla’s study calls on YouTube to make its controls “easy to understand and access” and to put users in the “driver’s seat” when it comes to their recommendations.