Instead of suggested videos tailored to their interests, anonymous YouTube visitors now see a blank homepage prompting them to search for something to get started and "Start watching videos" to build a personalized feed. Searches yield no recommendations either, just a persistent nudge to watch more content.
This radical departure from YouTube's previous recommendation approach, which served up video picks even for non-logged-in users, has sparked backlash. Many view it as a heavy-handed effort to strong-arm people into handing over their viewing data for ad targeting.
The lack of recommendations isn't limited to incognito mode either. As per Mayank Parmar and Haridev on X those who clear their watch and search histories or disable tracking settings report similarly sparse YouTube homepages when signed in - a potential punishment for refusing to share that valuable engagement data.
While YouTube hasn't officially commented, it's clear the platform is tightening its grip on the personalized, data-driven experiences that earn it billions. Whether casual users will accept being cornered into persistent tracking remains to be seen.
Read next: Microsoft’s Orca-Math, an SLM is Developed to Solve Math Questions and It is Better than Most LLMs
by Asim BN via Digital Information World
No comments:
Post a Comment