Why is the YouTube algorithm so bad? Most of the things on my homepage are things I don’t want to watch. And YouTube keeps recommending me videos I’ve already watched. They also keep recommending me the same video over and over again.

I remember reading they offer you things you’ve already watched because people are likely to click those again, which leads to ad revenue.

Press the 3 dots on the video you don’t like and choose “not interested” or “don’t recommend this channel”.

Keep doing it to videos youre not interested in, it works really well.

I know what you mean. Amazon is the same way. And Prime. And Netflix. Google isn’t really much better. That’s what happens when they make sales more important than consumer satisfaction or even consumer experience.

Want to make a million bucks? Come up with a search engine that consistently returns what was asked for as opposed to what they want you to ask for or what everybody else has asked for. Honestly, this is an untapped market. Current SEOs play a percentage game, at best. Like they’re saying, “Gee, that’s what most people want. Why would you want something that other people don’t want? I’m quite certain that this is what you want. You must have typed in the wrong thing, so here’s what other people asked for. Why don’t you let me bring you what research says you want. You can’t have that because no one else wants it…” Drives me nuts.

Have you ever tried to find an image on Google? Or anything specific really. “You want a photo of Sitting Bull? Here are 50 pictures of people sitting. No? Ok, here are 50 pictures of bulls. How about horns? Bulls have horns. Here are 25 pictures of bulls with horns. And 25 of musicians playing horns. And 15 of people using bullhorns. Still no? Oh I know! You wanted 500 pictures of Michael Jordan in a sitting position. Scottie Pippen? Bob Love? … Sorry, what you’ve asked for doesn’t exist.”

“American? Oh, we’ve got lots of photos of presidents. Wealthy businessmen? A business woman? Baseball players! Basketball? Football? Soccer? Can’t be hockey. Sure you don’t want the president? Here’s one of him at a baseball game. Hollywood actresses, yeah that’s what you want! Actors? Bollywood? That Korean movie? Flags? People wearing flags? An actor playing the president, wearing an American flag at a baseball game? What? Oh, Native? Ok, 25 pictures of people in grass skirts, with bare feet and a spear. Sorry, no images of American presidents in a grass skirt holding a spear. Obama? Sorry, I don’t know what ‘Native American, Sitting Bull’ is.”

I could go on and on. And then, like you said, “Here are 10 videos you’ve already watched. Don’t you want to watch them again? But you liked them. You watched most of them almost all the way through. Want to join YouTube Music? Oh, thought you changed your mind since the last time you declined. How about this different version of that video you watched before? It’s got really crappy quality. How about this one that’s super popular on Facebook? Twitter? Tik Tok? How about a Ted Talk about Facebook? Twitter? Tik Tok? How can you not want to watch a Ted Talk on Tik Tok? Here’s the weather report for Chattanooga if you want it. And that video we always recommend but you always ignore. It’s been two years now. Isn’t it about time you watched it? Hey, this video is THE FUNNIEST YOU’LL EVER SEE!!”

I hate it the most when a friend sends some video and I don’t like it and then the next whole week YouTube is gonna suggest me similar videos

Probably because you either watch a huge variety of things (thus making you hard to “pin down”), or you watch really popular videos (so YouTube doesn’t know what “kind” of person you are and what kinds of videos you’d like).

If you want good recommendations, just tell YouTube you’re not interested in that video. It’ll remove it from your list, and use that info to recommend other things to you that you’re more likely to like.

I find the algorithm on both my accounts works really well for me.