I have an old Google account that I only use for one specific thing today: YouTube recommendations.

Their algorithm is actually decent. Which is not something I hear myself very often. And while it can be a trap, it does actually recommend me a fair bit of high quality content as long as I stay away from the obvious traps, make sure to block channels I don’t like, and use the feature “not interested” on videos that I don’t like.

However. I would like to only use my web feed client and no Google account at all, but I would then miss out on the recommended videos.

Is there some privacy respecting alternative to this that I’m not aware of?

  • yuman@programming.dev
    5·
    3 days ago

    freetube recommends decently similar videos with the occasional slop in there, in addition to your subscriptions that are not visible to google or anyone else. only here, when you hide a channel, that thing is hidden forever, won’t pop up again randomly.

      • yuman@programming.dev
        2·
        2 days ago

        I mighta misunderstood what you want; freetube gives good & relevant recommendations if you’ve selected a video, like you’re watching something and then you see related stuff in the sidebar.

        if you want to open freetube and then it recommends you things to watch, unprompted, that’s not a thing. honestly, wouldn’t want that to be an option at all.

        when you turn off the “viral” shit, block a buncha slop channels (super easy - stupid face in the thumbnail? blockety block) and make your subs the home page, it becomes a joy to use.

        • Hund@feddit.nuOP
          1·
          2 days ago

          No worries!

          I understand that it might not be for everyone. I’m generally speaking against unethical soul sucking algorithms, which is why I don’t use social medias (other than this account and one on GoToSocial). However. I find the algorithm for YouTube to be good as long as you stay aware of it.