I need the YouTube algorithm to cease doing this one annoying factor

Through the years, the YouTube suggestion algorithm has change into fairly advanced. I’ve seen that it may well extrapolate my tastes very effectively primarily based on my watch historical past, constantly tempting me to eat extra movies. For instance, I just lately watched a stay clip of The Prodigy at Coachella. My house display screen feed then crammed up with not solely live performance clips from different exhibits by The Prodigy, but additionally different artists that I get pleasure from, equivalent to 9 Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Air, and extra. Notably, these artists sound nothing like The Prodigy, however the algorithm is sensible sufficient to imagine that my tastes will align with them primarily based on my watch historical past. I’m not going to lie: I needed to cease myself from spending all day watching stay live performance clips.

That is spectacular and one thing Google has in all probability spent tens of millions of {dollars} refining, because it retains folks glued to YouTube and fueling the money-printing machine that it’s change into. Curiously, whereas the algorithm is clever sufficient to try this, it’s nonetheless fully inept at one thing else: understanding after I seek for a video not as a result of I’m deeply within the subject, however as a result of I need assistance doing a particular process. Even now, in 2025, this nonetheless appears to throw the algorithm for a loop.

Let me provide you with a real-world instance of the algorithm’s deficiency. I’ve a pair of costly German leather-based boots that I put on practically day by day and love with all my coronary heart. Since I put on them a lot, they bear fairly a bit of damage and tear. Previously, I’ve taken them to a cobbler for a refresh each few years, however right here in California, that’s costly — and never getting any cheaper. I figured it may well’t be that tough to do annual upkeep on my boots on my own, and doing so will surely save me cash.

I went straight to YouTube with this thought. I looked for “leather-based boot refresh” and located dozens of high-quality movies going over the instruments, polishes, conditioners, and different supplies wanted for this process, in addition to step-by-step directions. I watched one video — only one! — and knew I may do that myself. I purchased the merchandise the video urged, and after they had all arrived, I re-watched the identical video a number of occasions as I adopted its directions. My boots look nice now — they’re like new!

One would assume that the YouTube algorithm would perceive that this course of I went by way of is in no way much like watching a stay live performance clip. I’m not all in favour of shopping for leather-based boots. I’m not searching for different recommendations on fixing my boots. I’m not going to open a cobbler store. I had a one-time downside — refreshing my boots — and used one YouTube video to resolve that downside. If I ever need assistance once more, I’ll seek for it (or simply watch the identical video as soon as extra).

Regardless of how apparent this would appear, this didn’t cease the algorithm from filling my house web page with different movies about refreshing leather-based boots. Critically, for just a few days after I did the refresh, roughly half of my house web page was movies associated to leather-based, boots, or cobbler issues. Shouldn’t we be past this by now? Shouldn’t the algorithm be capable to inform the distinction between video hours spent watching stuff I get pleasure from and hours spent utilizing YouTube as a software?

Keep in mind how I needed to maintain myself again from bingeing total concert events after watching only one Coachella clip? That’s what has made YouTube so profitable. Sadly, this downside — its incapacity to forestall itself from suggesting irrelevant content material primarily based on one-time wants — actively makes the house web page worse, working in opposition to its success. In different phrases, my feed being coated with boot movies makes me need to navigate away from YouTube. It’s the precise reverse of Google’s intentions!

Primarily based on this, one would assume that Google would prioritize stopping this challenge. Nevertheless, provided that YouTube has been round for 20 years (man, I’m previous) and this downside nonetheless exists, it clearly isn’t as a lot of a precedence for Google as I’d assume.

To Google’s credit score, a bit greater than every week after this occurred, my feed cleared all references to boots and leather-based. It appears the algorithm is sensible sufficient now to know that I didn’t click on on any of its solutions, so I’m not likely all in favour of extra boot movies. However what if this wasn’t one thing associated besides restore, and as an alternative one thing extra delicate? What if I went to YouTube for an answer to a health-related challenge, and all of a sudden my feed was a beacon to anybody who needs to find out about my medical situation? What if I watched a video about tips on how to remedy a marital downside, and my feed grew to become crammed with different movies about marital issues I’m not having? YouTube needs to be working for us, not in opposition to us.

Have you ever confronted an identical downside? What did you seek for that the algorithm then pummelled you with different associated movies? Let me know within the feedback, and you should definitely choose one thing within the ballot above, too!