> Am I the only one who launches YouTube just to watch a single tutorial and ends up devouring dozens of fine-tuned recommendations?
I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand.
One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talking for 40 minutes while showing the screen.
Also, the video, at least to me, makes the person doing the tutorial to be seen as "more authoritative" than through text, even if you can tell the person talking has little experience with microcontrollers (or whatever, if you have experience in the field).
The same applies for "making a gradient in Gimp". I don't want a 5 minutes videos. Give me a bullet-point list on text. 20 seconds read. I can "rewind" easily and repeat a step I missed.
I will always prefer text for some types of tutorials. I can "ctrl + f" and search for the parts I want, and see the code examples in peace, without rushing them while someone is talking.
I might watch a video tutorial for, I don't know, fixing a dishwater. But I guess I am just getting old.
Every now and then I find a video tutorial for some computer thing very helpful—specifically, the kind where someone does something beginning to end with a screencast—simply because every single damn text tutorial was skipping one or more steps or pieces of context that I guess they thought were too obvious to mention. This is usually for set-up or config stuff, though. For programming I agree that videos are almost universally painful to watch and low-value. I can't begin to understand people who head straight for YouTube when picking up e.g. a new programming language or library(!).
However, for cooking technique and building/home-repair/car-repair, videos are a game changer. Simply amazing. Actually, that goes for sports stuff, too. I find reading about all those things nearly worthless, and watching someone do it while explaining, a much better use of my time.
I believe it's a generational thing. We, in our late thirties, didn't have so much video content, we studied from books, learned from written content. Younger generations adapted to use videos as a learning aid, sometimes as the main learning platform. We won't ever be able to understand how they work. Their brain just adapted to this kind of learning medium.
For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable, unskimmable. I cannot easily go back to more difficult parts and reread (watch) them at my own pace. I cannot use them as a quick reference. Even my photographic memory doesn't work with videos, there's just something more powerful with black on white words and formulas.
Also completely agree about youtuber credibility. Being easy going, with good lighting, nice looks and neat surroundings makes them sound authoritative on the subject they talk about, especially to the newcomer ears, without any real backing.
Always text over video. When people say they prefer video, they don't know better, haven't actually been learning anything or are extremely lazy.
For example, to do a gradient in Gimp, you should know a few shortcode keys. Now how do I look up which key to use again? Load the video and keep fiddling with the player until I hit the right moment where he explains this little detail? It's extremely annoying to look up anything in a video.
You also waste a shitload of time because you can't just skim through all the stuff you already know.
Video tutorials are only popular because Google boosts Youtube videos over text in search. The creators don't care that it's a bad medium for you, because it's an excellent medium for them. Way more revenue to gain from a Youtube video then some blogpost
This is true for certain kinds of tasks, particularly programming or anything very instruction-oriented. However, for practical tasks, like installing a bathroom faucet, a short and succint video is gold. Now that YouTube has chapter labels, it's even better.
That said, YouTube is clearly going downhill for a host of other reasons, but hands-on tutorials remain one of its best forms of content.
I’m old too (43) and I enjoy short videos that get to the point as well. If a video is too long or takes too long I’ll just skip ahead and until I hear them talking about specifics.
There was a point a few years ago where there was this sudden shift to longer videos on YouTube. I think part of it was greater engagement is seen on such videos, leading to more ad time. As a result though, the actual quality of the content is down but I would say the “showmanship” is up. In a longer video, you have to be good at delivery and keeping people interested, so it starts to favor entertaining speakers. So now people watch videos for a large part because they want to “hang out” with the presenter. Also, Twitch is essentially just hanging out with someone. Anyway, now I’m just rambling like an old man.
There's definitely a ton of low quality videos doing things that might be better presented in text, the worst examples being videos of text. They're easy to make and YT makes it easy to monetize them so people make them without caring how practical it is, and people watch them for various reason.
I've utilized a few myself (42, I think), and it's usually because it's the first thing I found and I'm a complete beginner, so anything will help point me in some reasonable direction. I've even specifically watch "programming a microcontroller" and "making a gradient in Gimp" videos. I have very little experience in those things and, even if the presenter is just going through the steps, there's visual hints that help me navigate the intimidating interfaces those things come with. If I need text for future reference, I can usually find it in a matter of seconds. Maybe even easier than before if I've learned a few new keywords from the video.
As far as the "more authoritative" thing, that can only be solved in the viewers mind. Learning to control that bias is good for life in general anyway.
I’m in the same boat as you but I just don’t consume YouTube at all. Sure I’ve looked up repair things or a tutorial if it’s less than 10 minutes. I have to have something specific to watch I don’t just keep watching related videos. Watch a movie trailer I wanted to see, then peace out. Maybe it’s partially an age thing or perhaps just some people get that dopamine release easier from YouTube. I will say the exception is that I have spent time watching videos of people building things as long as it doesn’t have narration or hot takes from the people. I guess in general I can’t get behind any of the standard issue YouTuber speak and mannerisms, it’s all very similar (at least that’s how I feel with the popular videos).
Once I got a job as a software dev I quickly started preferring text based tutorials and docs. As a student I would always hunt down the “best” tutorial video for a given topic.
Video tutorials for great for introductions to new subjects of study (at least for me) — they can help provide a good intuition for complicated subjects. At the very least, there are plenty of lectures one can watch and follow along with a textbook. It’s never a replacement for reading a great manual for getting into the details or real one-on-one training or real documentation, but [good quality] video is still a great supplemental tool for learning.
> Also, the video, at least to me, makes the person doing the tutorial to be seen as "more authoritative" than through text, even if you can tell the person talking has little experience with microcontrollers (or whatever, if you have experience in the field).
And with the dislike count gone we've lost the only way to tell at a glance if a tutorial is worth spending time on. Good luck finding a thoughtful critique in the comments.
I think for me it depends. Video's are better if I'm completely out of my depth or its a big project or its something thats new to me. Text can skim over small but important details, videos usually don't (obviously they can edited out, but thats an active process of removing it, rather than a passive process of just not adding it). But if its something I know a decent amount about, I'll always go with text.
Where it gets a bit more interesting is that middle ground. Usually I prefer text in theory, but a lot of the articles written about it are filled with as much fluff as videos, but then you also have cookie popups, ads, location and notification requests, ect... which can make videos sometimes faster, sometimes slower.
I'm in my mid 20's so I don't know if its a generational thing, I might be just an outlier but I couldn't say for sure.
Video tutorials are great for when the thing being interacted with is a user interface. They suck when they are just narration. People talk too slow.
They become great again when the video is stuffed with visual information and you kick the speed up to 1.5x.
I say this as some one who hates video being the default information channel.
Although to be fair I don't think it's just you getting old. Maybe the number of examples you need to see to classify something new goes down as you get older, but it's not like there aren't an endless stream of videos that could be short paragraphs of explanatory text (or 30 second clips instead of ten minutes of 'hey it's ya booooi SaladStreams here to hit YOU with the latest windows 10 tips!!!')
I feel the same logically. I’ll be 35 in a couple weeks and I’m also an avid text fan, but lately I’ve noticed that I shift to video searches for things a lot faster. I thought about it a little, and I think that maybe I’ve started doing that because text search is a mess today. SEO has won on text search, but it takes a lot of effort to produce a good video. I can often find a good video for some things faster than I can hunt down a good text overview or tutorial. Then of course, I’m often more interested in the text included in the description because it will point to what I need in more detail.
YouTube is the best place for instruction because everything in text now is just marketing. YouTube gives creators a way to profit from genuinely useful content, even if it’s not the best medium for it.
I'm in my late 20's and practically grew up with YouTube. I can't stand watching tutorial videos for anything technical. The content is not searchable and not even close to as fast as text.
For mechanical stuff (dis/reasembling equipment) it makes some sense, because diagrams are never as good as an HD video at showing where that screw hole is or how to pop off a clip. At the same time, I can't watch most of those videos at less than 1.5x!
Often, the first google hit on "how to do X" is a video when, as you say, a bulleted list would be easier to follow. Maybe ads are better monetized on video so the incentive is only to create that content?
I'm older than you and I definitely prefer text for programming related tutorials but I'll jump straight to videos for more practical things.
Reading a recipe is fine for a lot of cooking, but some things like "How to spatchcock a chicken" benefit greatly from a video demonstration.
Similarly I took up knitting a while ago, and watching videos was the only way I could learn the techniques, trying to do it from written instructions was impossible.
for many things i prefer <2 min videos over text. I.e. how to create a graph in excel. Video would go like click here, here and then here. Article would go like first press ctrl+L then next to this, below that, your version may be different, click the button, then you will see xyz, on bottom right select this, .......
It's not only you. I feel the same. Whenever I stumble upon a video for a programming related tutorial ( mostly AWS ), I want a text copy by the side so that I can get what I want and move on.
Maybe Youtube should give ability to "seek to" on its autogenerated subtitles in the sidebar. I would find it useful at least.
This is one of the reasons Tiktok growth is exploding. Like Twitter, it forces creators to apply some editing and think about what really needs to be in their video. Contrast this to YouTube which incentivizes stretching a 15 second idea into a 10 minute waste of time.
My big problem with YouTube recommendations isn't that they're so good that I get sucked in; it's that they're so bad. I would happily spend more time on the site watching interesting videos if they only would show up in my recommendation feed.
Instead, I get recommended the same old crap, all coming from a small set of the same video categories over and over again (except for the occasional America's Got Talent or any other clip that've reached over 100 million views). It's not like I don't like airplane and board repair videos, but it's not the only thing that I'm interested in, which YouTube seems to think.
Show me something new! Try recommending a video about how to grow flowers or about Titanic rather than thinking that the only thing I'm interested in are whatever I've been watching for the last couple of months.
The recommendation engine does tend to hover around recommending more of the same topics you like, because it looks like it's mostly driven off "people who like the stuff you like also liked this other stuff".
The solution to that is to bootstrap the engine with a variety of topics. I'm subscribed to channels about game design, film critics, engineering, urban planning, math, sudoku, beat saber, figure skating, history, and stand ups.
This much does mean the homepage gets pretty diverse and once in a while new topics do show up.
I've found the same thing. I like snowmobiling and I like Dota 2. Surely in the billions and billions of hours of content on YouTube, there's something else I would like as well, but the algorithm seems content to only ever serve me up videos from two categories.
Some kind of forced flavor in an "I'm Feeling Lucky" or "Discover Weekly" format would be a great improvement I think.
Lately YouTube started proposing "Wanna watch something new?" and offered me a tab "New to you" with only videos from creators I've never watched before.
That was a good change of pace for once, instead of showing me videos I've watched less than a week ago.
The best way I’ve found to spend less time on YouTube is realizing that the vast majority of content is pure garbage and just stay the hell away from it. These days I only visit it when I need something specific (a tutorial on how to do a particular thing, a video the kid wants to watch, etc). And of course uBlock origin is enabled to spare me from the “unskippable ads that are longer than the video itself” experience.
What helped me was moving channels from YouTube subscriptions to RSS feeds. Thus I stopped opening YouTube homepage and play videos straight from RSS client.
A really convenient workaround is the extension called Unhook. It's very neat and lets you to control many aspects of your Youtube experience. Available both for Chrome/Firefox:
Just implemented this! Thanks for posting! For those who don't click, he suggests some uBlock Origin filters to remove the suggestion lists from YouTube. For example, currently I'm watching a video and all I see is THE VIDEO - no list of suggestions off to the side.
I guess we can say YouTube's suggestions are "too good"! I might just apply this to my work computer. I'll probably keep them around for my casual viewing on personal machines since I find some new stuff with them.
It'll be interesting to see how this changes my browsing!
I reduce my time on YouTube by going there with a specific subject in mind, search on it, and use yt-dlp to download the likely candidates and watch them offline. It has the added bonus of being able to re-watch them offline without going back to YT.
It's similar, now that I think about it, to my shopping routine. Research what I want, go in, grab it, and get the heck out.
I've learned over the years that if I don't want to buy too much or spend a few hours watching videos I could do without, I limit my interactions voluntarily.
I "subscribe" to any channel I think is decent, supposedly it helps their numbers, but I rarely use the YouTube interface to figure out what to watch next. My real subscription list is my RSS reader and I'm highly selective about what goes in there. When I do watch something on the site, I habitually put it in theater mode right away, which hides the suggestions. I'm sure lots of people would set theater mode as the default if it were an option. I'm sure it's not on purpose.
What I really want is all my subscriptions to get auto-downloaded into Plex. And for Plex to have better library management tools from the player, so I can delete after watching or move to a category.
Then show me all the algorithmic stuff when I'm on the website so I can find better stuff to subscribe to.
The official UI has some weird bugs. Like, when i listen to a long video, and then seek back to some position near the beginning, it gets stuck loading forever.
At this point, running youtube-dl via mpv on it is faster than the official UI for me. I set ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480] in the mpv config so i dont use up more bandwith than my eyes can consume. Youtube-dl is somewhat wonky some days, tho.
I use this technique of DOM filtering with uBlock to defeat "engagement" features and improve site experience a lot. My problem comes with pages where the HTML element classes are not semantic, but compiled by a tool like tailwind, e.g.
<div class="erslblw0"> ... </div>
For example, if you go to nytimes.com and use uBlock's 'zapper' to select an element to hide, you'll get a query selector like this:
.erslblw0.css-163q563 > .css-13dv6mc
These are dependent on the build, and can change day to day. Has any one come up with a solution for this situation, beyond painstakingly manually constructing positional CSS selectors (nth-of-type, etc..)?
PSA for all, you can go into your YouTube settings and disable Search History (and a bunch of other things? It's been a while), and surprisingly the algorithm more or less respects that. It completely neuters the algorithm, it won't target you worth a damn, and YouTube becomes a lot less engaging overall. Highly recommend for everyone.
I am in a new job as of lately, and found myself wandering a lot in youtube, reddit and twitter. I also used ublock for removing the recommendation section and it makes my life much simpler. We should use an adversarial approach to all those UX hyper optimizations from big cos. I also had to install LeechBlock to limit my time on time wasting activities, now I sleep better and have an easier time focusing on work stuff, even just freeing some mind-CPU to accomplish more meaningful tasks. Glad that I am not alone in this battle for our own sanity.
It's nice, unfortunately the filters break also playlists, which is unfortunate, because those are actually created by me for distraction-free watching of stuff that I'm really interested in.
Are there any tools that will download either the metadata or even the entire video from my YT subscriptions, and that just runs natively on my Linux system (i.e. no Docker/container stuff) ? Something I could look at that isn't YT but would show me the latest (if any) stuff from channel's I've expressed interest in?
I've seen tubearchivist and tubesync, mentioned below, and these just don't operate with the sort of technology I'm comfortable with.
The main problem with youtube is lack of control. I would pay youtube if it allowed me to fully control and monitor how it works so that I can fine tune it's behaviour to fit my needs.
For example I would like to:
- disable recommendations in some contexts (similar to how OP does it)
- label videos and let youtube to classify videos into these set of labels, so that I can either block of filter videos accordingly (eg. I could label certain videos as "junk" and would keep those hidden unless I really want to see such videos)
- search by video length, eg. show me only talks which takes about an hour
- say, show me something I found entertaining, but I have just half an hour, so that after the time is up, it no longer shows such stuff
- setup a "watch budget time" to spend or disable service during certain time periods
- see metrics about my watch behaviour, so that I can fine tune youtube options accordingly
I would be even ok for youtube to show me some ads based on my behaviour, if I have some control over it. Eg. disable ads with too small target group or ads I find annoying.
And while there could be some monetization options (eg. you configure your account not to show you something or don't provide service in given timerange - but you would be able to cancel that for a fee :-)) I doubt that it would make sense for them from business perspective: it would decrease the value of the advertising they are selling while it would cost a lot. So in the end I'm not sure if I would be able the real price of all this.
[+] [-] scoutt|4 years ago|reply
I'm hitting 40 next week, and seeing others asking for recommendations of videos on "programming a microcontroller" (or programming related) is something I can't understand.
One day I sat and watched some of the videos they were recommending, and in most of them there were a person talking for 40 minutes while showing the screen.
Also, the video, at least to me, makes the person doing the tutorial to be seen as "more authoritative" than through text, even if you can tell the person talking has little experience with microcontrollers (or whatever, if you have experience in the field).
The same applies for "making a gradient in Gimp". I don't want a 5 minutes videos. Give me a bullet-point list on text. 20 seconds read. I can "rewind" easily and repeat a step I missed.
I will always prefer text for some types of tutorials. I can "ctrl + f" and search for the parts I want, and see the code examples in peace, without rushing them while someone is talking.
I might watch a video tutorial for, I don't know, fixing a dishwater. But I guess I am just getting old.
[+] [-] handrous|4 years ago|reply
However, for cooking technique and building/home-repair/car-repair, videos are a game changer. Simply amazing. Actually, that goes for sports stuff, too. I find reading about all those things nearly worthless, and watching someone do it while explaining, a much better use of my time.
[+] [-] aulin|4 years ago|reply
For me video talking about code is slow, unsearchable, unskimmable. I cannot easily go back to more difficult parts and reread (watch) them at my own pace. I cannot use them as a quick reference. Even my photographic memory doesn't work with videos, there's just something more powerful with black on white words and formulas.
Also completely agree about youtuber credibility. Being easy going, with good lighting, nice looks and neat surroundings makes them sound authoritative on the subject they talk about, especially to the newcomer ears, without any real backing.
[+] [-] dncornholio|4 years ago|reply
For example, to do a gradient in Gimp, you should know a few shortcode keys. Now how do I look up which key to use again? Load the video and keep fiddling with the player until I hit the right moment where he explains this little detail? It's extremely annoying to look up anything in a video.
You also waste a shitload of time because you can't just skim through all the stuff you already know.
Video tutorials are only popular because Google boosts Youtube videos over text in search. The creators don't care that it's a bad medium for you, because it's an excellent medium for them. Way more revenue to gain from a Youtube video then some blogpost
[+] [-] titzer|4 years ago|reply
That said, YouTube is clearly going downhill for a host of other reasons, but hands-on tutorials remain one of its best forms of content.
[+] [-] allenu|4 years ago|reply
There was a point a few years ago where there was this sudden shift to longer videos on YouTube. I think part of it was greater engagement is seen on such videos, leading to more ad time. As a result though, the actual quality of the content is down but I would say the “showmanship” is up. In a longer video, you have to be good at delivery and keeping people interested, so it starts to favor entertaining speakers. So now people watch videos for a large part because they want to “hang out” with the presenter. Also, Twitch is essentially just hanging out with someone. Anyway, now I’m just rambling like an old man.
[+] [-] kgwxd|4 years ago|reply
I've utilized a few myself (42, I think), and it's usually because it's the first thing I found and I'm a complete beginner, so anything will help point me in some reasonable direction. I've even specifically watch "programming a microcontroller" and "making a gradient in Gimp" videos. I have very little experience in those things and, even if the presenter is just going through the steps, there's visual hints that help me navigate the intimidating interfaces those things come with. If I need text for future reference, I can usually find it in a matter of seconds. Maybe even easier than before if I've learned a few new keywords from the video.
As far as the "more authoritative" thing, that can only be solved in the viewers mind. Learning to control that bias is good for life in general anyway.
[+] [-] spaceisballer|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FearlessNebula|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anthony_romeo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yelling_cat|4 years ago|reply
And with the dislike count gone we've lost the only way to tell at a glance if a tutorial is worth spending time on. Good luck finding a thoughtful critique in the comments.
[+] [-] bodge5000|4 years ago|reply
Where it gets a bit more interesting is that middle ground. Usually I prefer text in theory, but a lot of the articles written about it are filled with as much fluff as videos, but then you also have cookie popups, ads, location and notification requests, ect... which can make videos sometimes faster, sometimes slower.
I'm in my mid 20's so I don't know if its a generational thing, I might be just an outlier but I couldn't say for sure.
[+] [-] jcun4128|4 years ago|reply
We're going to apply a mask to find the red cup, ball, etc...
I made a personal chrome extension that hides the YT content you first see to stop hijacking my original intent of coming to YT.
I still like YT though, watching Ben Heck's videos or random Japanese fishing/cooking shows.
[+] [-] burnished|4 years ago|reply
They become great again when the video is stuffed with visual information and you kick the speed up to 1.5x.
I say this as some one who hates video being the default information channel.
Although to be fair I don't think it's just you getting old. Maybe the number of examples you need to see to classify something new goes down as you get older, but it's not like there aren't an endless stream of videos that could be short paragraphs of explanatory text (or 30 second clips instead of ten minutes of 'hey it's ya booooi SaladStreams here to hit YOU with the latest windows 10 tips!!!')
[+] [-] slig|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eloisius|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scrollaway|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jl2718|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polishdude20|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kurthr|4 years ago|reply
Often, the first google hit on "how to do X" is a video when, as you say, a bulleted list would be easier to follow. Maybe ads are better monetized on video so the incentive is only to create that content?
[+] [-] lambic|4 years ago|reply
Reading a recipe is fine for a lot of cooking, but some things like "How to spatchcock a chicken" benefit greatly from a video demonstration.
Similarly I took up knitting a while ago, and watching videos was the only way I could learn the techniques, trying to do it from written instructions was impossible.
[+] [-] lifeplusplus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DavidCole1|4 years ago|reply
Maybe Youtube should give ability to "seek to" on its autogenerated subtitles in the sidebar. I would find it useful at least.
[+] [-] nathias|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xnx|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fikama|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GaylordTuring|4 years ago|reply
Instead, I get recommended the same old crap, all coming from a small set of the same video categories over and over again (except for the occasional America's Got Talent or any other clip that've reached over 100 million views). It's not like I don't like airplane and board repair videos, but it's not the only thing that I'm interested in, which YouTube seems to think.
Show me something new! Try recommending a video about how to grow flowers or about Titanic rather than thinking that the only thing I'm interested in are whatever I've been watching for the last couple of months.
[+] [-] scrollaway|4 years ago|reply
The solution to that is to bootstrap the engine with a variety of topics. I'm subscribed to channels about game design, film critics, engineering, urban planning, math, sudoku, beat saber, figure skating, history, and stand ups.
This much does mean the homepage gets pretty diverse and once in a while new topics do show up.
[+] [-] joenot443|4 years ago|reply
Some kind of forced flavor in an "I'm Feeling Lucky" or "Discover Weekly" format would be a great improvement I think.
[+] [-] mdrzn|4 years ago|reply
That was a good change of pace for once, instead of showing me videos I've watched less than a week ago.
[+] [-] loloquwowndueo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zczc|4 years ago|reply
RSS URLs are https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<chanel_...
[+] [-] mill|4 years ago|reply
1)https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/unhook-remove-yout...
2)https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-recom...
[+] [-] tomkat0789|4 years ago|reply
I guess we can say YouTube's suggestions are "too good"! I might just apply this to my work computer. I'll probably keep them around for my casual viewing on personal machines since I find some new stuff with them.
It'll be interesting to see how this changes my browsing!
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pawurb|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] godshatter|4 years ago|reply
It's similar, now that I think about it, to my shopping routine. Research what I want, go in, grab it, and get the heck out.
I've learned over the years that if I don't want to buy too much or spend a few hours watching videos I could do without, I limit my interactions voluntarily.
[+] [-] kgwxd|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ballenf|4 years ago|reply
Then show me all the algorithmic stuff when I'm on the website so I can find better stuff to subscribe to.
[+] [-] blueflow|4 years ago|reply
At this point, running youtube-dl via mpv on it is faster than the official UI for me. I set ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480] in the mpv config so i dont use up more bandwith than my eyes can consume. Youtube-dl is somewhat wonky some days, tho.
[+] [-] psacawa|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] funOtter|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mediocregopher|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alexitosrv|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elcapitan|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PaulDavisThe1st|4 years ago|reply
I've seen tubearchivist and tubesync, mentioned below, and these just don't operate with the sort of technology I'm comfortable with.
[+] [-] ochronus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marbu|4 years ago|reply
For example I would like to:
- disable recommendations in some contexts (similar to how OP does it)
- label videos and let youtube to classify videos into these set of labels, so that I can either block of filter videos accordingly (eg. I could label certain videos as "junk" and would keep those hidden unless I really want to see such videos)
- search by video length, eg. show me only talks which takes about an hour
- say, show me something I found entertaining, but I have just half an hour, so that after the time is up, it no longer shows such stuff
- setup a "watch budget time" to spend or disable service during certain time periods
- see metrics about my watch behaviour, so that I can fine tune youtube options accordingly
I would be even ok for youtube to show me some ads based on my behaviour, if I have some control over it. Eg. disable ads with too small target group or ads I find annoying.
And while there could be some monetization options (eg. you configure your account not to show you something or don't provide service in given timerange - but you would be able to cancel that for a fee :-)) I doubt that it would make sense for them from business perspective: it would decrease the value of the advertising they are selling while it would cost a lot. So in the end I'm not sure if I would be able the real price of all this.
[+] [-] throw8932894|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DeathArrow|4 years ago|reply