YouTube's questionable video suggestions? Here's a solution for you
Resetting and Improving YouTube Video Recommendations
If you've found yourself receiving unwanted or strange video recommendations on YouTube, there's a simple solution to reset the recommendation system and improve your viewing experience. The key step is to clear your YouTube watch and search history.
To do this on the YouTube app, follow these steps:
- Open the YouTube app and tap your profile icon.
- Go to the Settings (usually represented by a gear icon).
- Find the History & Privacy or History section.
- Tap on Clear Watch History and confirm deleting all your past watched videos.
- Similarly, clear your Search History by selecting "Manage Search History" and deleting all activity.
By clearing both histories, YouTube will no longer have your prior activity to use for recommendations and will start making suggestions anew based on your future viewing.
Here are some additional tips to improve recommendations:
- Make sure you are logged into the correct YouTube account to avoid mixed recommendations from family or friends’ watch habits.
- Use the "Not Interested" option on videos you dislike to train the algorithm not to suggest similar content.
- Avoid watching videos that you find off-topic or irrelevant, as one odd view can skew the recommendation feed temporarily.
Logging out or pausing watch history can help freeze YouTube's algorithm on the last videos in your history. The YouTube app may take some time to reset itself regarding recommendations after clearing watch history.
It's worth noting that YouTube's recommendation system is based on what videos a user watches and returns to. This system has been refined over the years and uses machine learning.
When YouTube rolls out AI age verification, turning off personalized ads on the Google Account dashboard will also be turned off for minors.
By combining these steps—clearing your watch and search history, actively marking unwanted videos as "Not Interested," and ensuring account security—you can effectively reset and improve your YouTube video recommendations.
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- Utilizing technology through machine learning, the recommendation system on YouTube has been refined over the years to provide video suggestions based on a user's viewing history.
- Employing technology, the "Not Interested" option on YouTube allows users to train the algorithm not to suggest similar content they dislike.
