I never trusted YT algorithm or any recommendation algorithms for that matter.
I always watch YT videos straight from search results or links that I get sent.
I always kept my watch history and search history off.
Recommendation algorithms are not tuned to serve niche users but want to maximize watch duration from maximum number of viewers.
YT tells me several times a month that I have search histories turned off and my recs are bad and I should consider turning it back on. Never.
Even when I had it turned on, I got "popular" videos based on my location, age, gender etc. that I hated. Or I got recommended one to two hours lecture videos. Nobody just decides to spend two hours just because some algorithm thinks that is a good fit.
I use FF + uBlock on PC and YT vanced on android.
I never even look at my feed.
So, lack of dislikes (or any other recent change) has not changed anything for me.
> Recommendation algorithms are not tuned to serve niche users
I'm not sure that's correct either. I have some niche interests and I'm pretty happy with the recommendations. Things I actually watch definitely influence my future recommendations (actually got interested in some cool new topics because of that).
What I meant was if an algorithm had to "choose" between _trying_ to maximize views over all videos over all users, and _trying_ to maximize niche users' watch time, it would choose the former. That is what I think is true.
I, of course, do not know about YT's algo, but I did work in RecSys's in the past.
I always watch YT videos straight from search results or links that I get sent.
I always kept my watch history and search history off.
Recommendation algorithms are not tuned to serve niche users but want to maximize watch duration from maximum number of viewers.
YT tells me several times a month that I have search histories turned off and my recs are bad and I should consider turning it back on. Never.
Even when I had it turned on, I got "popular" videos based on my location, age, gender etc. that I hated. Or I got recommended one to two hours lecture videos. Nobody just decides to spend two hours just because some algorithm thinks that is a good fit.
I use FF + uBlock on PC and YT vanced on android.
I never even look at my feed.
So, lack of dislikes (or any other recent change) has not changed anything for me.