Youtube Search History

[Hischier and Hughes]

Hello guys. Im here with a bit of a problem and it's becoming distressing at this point

I watch a few animes that are old and have a few hundred episodes. As one would expect if you google an intro song or anything of the kind - youre likely to get spoiler videos recommended.

Well the simple solution would be to not use a YouTube account and delete search history/Youtube offline history. But guess what? This doesnt work.... AT ALL.

I have completely wiped all of my devices of any Youtube history, I dont use an account, and Ive cleared my browser history entirely. Yet Youtube continues to recommend me spoiler videos.

I dont want to get into a privacy argument but what the actual f***? Is it impossible to actually clear my history? Are they storing this information and then if they are, how? Ive gone through threedifferent avenues and none have worked: Ive deleted browser history, Ive not used a YouTube account, Ive deleted offline history (when you dont use an account)... And still it recommends me all types of videos Ive watched.

Its very disconcerting to think I may now have a permanent history on youtube and google that can never be deleted. Im essentially blocked from ever using Youtube until i finish the shows because I can youtube 'high speed cop chases' (lol) and itll f***ing recommend me anime videos. I cant begin to describe how aggravating it is

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[Sega Dreamcast]

I hate how Youtube started putting your suggested videos next to every video, instead of showing videos related to the one you're currently watching.

It's not ideal, but the best way to avoid spoilers would be to tell Youtube you're not interested in that show.

Whenever they recommend you a video about the show, click the 3 vertical dots, then click Not Interested. After that, sometimes, clicking Tell Us More will give you an option to say you're not interested in that topic.

Also, on your home page, they might be recommending the show to you as a topic. Next to the subscribe button will be a grey X to tell them Not Interested.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

The whole intégration of everything into everything is starting to get very annoying indeed.

I think the issue is that YT is Google so the two combined means YT always knows what you are up to.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Are you logged in to your Google account (Gmail, etc.) while browsing? If so, it will use that as your YouTube account and track your preferences that way.

If you log out of Google and clear your browser history, it should give you a more default style of recommendation. On the down side, you won't be able to track which episode you are on, etc.


Unless I'm going down the wrong track here....

 

[SuperScript29]

I'm pretty sure Google tracks IP addresses and uses that for recommendation. The other day I was browsing Youtube on our smart TV and noticed it was recommending multiple things, and what seemed obvious was that it was a combination of things I'm into, things my wife is into, and things that the kids watch.

Here's an interesting test, use a non-Google browser and make sure you're logged off of gmail, and browse Youtube through a VPN or proxy connection, if you don't get those recommendations anymore, the answer is obvious.

 

[RandV]

On my desktop if I'm intentionally going to youtube I use a private window (using firefox+noscript) just to mess with these systems and it seems to work fine for me, I always get generic recommendations on the youtube home page.

So I think what may actually be seeing is recommendations not necessarily tied to you but rather the video's you are watching. If you search for an anime intro song, the system will search for popular video's related to that topic (anime) to recommend you watch next. As most people will have seen it already it's probably the juicy stuff - spoilers, that get the most views.

Honestly depending on what type you are using see if you just can't cover up that side of the screen with a sock or a shirt or something. Someone recommended this to me I think as a joke when I complained about not being able to disable a minimap (a huge pet peeve of mine) in a game on Steam... and that's what I actually started doing with games and it works just fine.

 

[Shareefruck]

Their ethics are pretty disgusting. I have all of my activity history turned off for all of my Google services (everything's cleared and paused), but I still get recommendations based on what I've searched for in the past.

The stupid thing is I actually want recommendations of things that I like/subscribe to rather than what I happened to click on, but there doesn't seem to be a way to steer everything in that direction.

 

[Ceremony]

I get youtube suggestions based on conversations I've had in real life in places where I had none of my technology with me, I'd suggest worrying about google's various services tracking your activity might be a bit too late.

 

[S E P H]

I watch a few animes that are old and have a few hundred episodes. As one would expect if you google an intro song or anything of the kind - youre likely to get spoiler videos recommended.

Well the simple solution would be to not use a YouTube account and delete search history/Youtube offline history. But guess what? This doesnt work.... AT ALL.

I have completely wiped all of my devices of any Youtube history, I dont use an account, and Ive cleared my browser history entirely. Yet Youtube continues to recommend me spoiler videos.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if you need to delete your web browsers history as well? That's what I am thinking that is the main problem because my bro doesn't have a YouTube account, watches YouTube videos and still gets recommended by similar videos that he watches. Another way which can help you is that YouTube does have a feature for registered accounts where you can pause your watch history. Again it will probably be by-passed by your web browser history, but it's worth a shot if you combine the two. Another one I can think of off the top of my head is your IP Address.

I get youtube suggestions based on conversations I've had in real life in places where I had none of my technology with me, I'd suggest worrying about google's various services tracking your activity might be a bit too late.

That's scary.