YouTube or TheirTube?
Why does YouTube suck now? YouTube sucks because it refuses to give customization options to its users. Let’s look at recommended videos, discuss search results, and finally tie everything back to YouTube’s lack of customization options.
Recommended Videos
How often do you see the following types of recommended videos? Videos less than 30 seconds long. Videos that you’ve already watched. Stuff outside of your interests. What about mainstream content we originally used YouTube to avoid? No matter how many times you click “Not interested,” it seems 95% of recommendations fall under these categories. It was not always this way. Now? YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is broken.
YouTube Search
If YouTube’s search function worked correctly then bad recommended videos might be acceptable. However YouTube search is also broken. Let me ask you something. When searching for something specific do you care about what “People also watched?” Or what “People also search for?” How about videos unrelated to your search that YouTube thinks are “For you?” Are you hoping to see videos you’ve “Previously watched”? (Check your history you say?) What about videos “From related searches” instead? Do you get the feeling 3-4 content creators make up most of your search results? Does it feel like results begin repeating as you scroll down farther?
Searching is frustrating because YouTube tries to show you everything you are not searching for! You begin feeling like there are only 30 videos for any given search despite knowing there are over 800 million videos on the platform. YouTube search was not always bad but today it is horrible.
Customization Is The Solution
What can YouTube do about this? Give users the ability to customize. Imagine going to your account settings and being able to change parameters that effect your search results and recommended videos.
As you see in the image above, YouTube could give users options for disabling some of its most annoying “features.” There should be options for determining how long videos must be before reaching your recommended screen. Set the minimum to 2 minutes and viola: no more 19 second “recommendations.” An option to say, “I do not want to see content from verified accounts.” Check that box and no longer will you be forced to suffer mainstream content. What about disabling recommendations for videos you’ve seen before? Include options for removing shorts, playlists, and certain words from appearing in your recommended videos. If you want to keep them, fine! YouTube should give everyone the ability to choose.
The same kinds of options could be added for search results. Tired of seeing the same content creators appearing in your search results? Go ahead and block them from appearing in search! What if you don’t like seeing the following?
- “People also watched”
- “New for you”
- “People also searched for”
- “From related searches”
- “Previously watched”
- + other distractions (like “Shorts”)
If YouTube cared it would let you disable them.
"We Tell You What You Want."
The common thread running through everything making YouTube suck now is a deep disregard for user preferences and customization features. Basic notions of user feedback, human intervention, and human factors engineering have been thrown out the window. For no good reason. YouTube is running itself into the ground not because its algorithm “is uniquely complex” but because it is no longer concerned with allowing users to customize their experience.
YouTube wants to tell you what you should want. It’s not interesting in giving you the option to choose. It’s as simple as that. By directing you to content that you’re not interested in, they are trying to dictate what you should be focusing on. What we focus on effects our thoughts and behaviors. Remember: YouTube doesn’t give you the content you want, they keep pushing the type of content they want.
The frustrating and continually worsening user experience of YouTube and similar services is making it easier to stop using them. Forcing me to. Consider Microsoft for example. Microsoft constantly pushes updates I’m not interested in. They give me no option to disable their update prompts. This lack of concern about me as a user lead me to start using Linux instead. Had Microsoft kept their user’s preferences an important priority I would have never switched.
Give users customization options… or they will leave!
Let's Consider Alternatives!
Why use products that “know what’s best” for you? Products that ignore your preferences? Which refuse customization? Products that refuse to consider user experiences based on human feedback? Companies that defer to everything except their customers? I’m tired of having bad design decisions forced on us. I’m tired of having my attention directed towards content I’m not interested in. I’m tired of not having easy options to implement. I am done with them.
I wonder if there will be a turning point for others given enough time. YouTube, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, etc. All of them are forcing me to consider and utilize alternatives. Even if it means turning off my phone and opening a book to read or write sometimes. That’s not a bad thing.
Until next time. Cheers.