YouTube Tests a 'Play Something' Button

Emma Roth reports via The Verge: YouTube appears to be testing a new "play something" button on its mobile app that directs you to a random video when you don't know what to watch. As first spotted by Android Police, the prompt shows up between content as you scroll through the feed on your homepage -- but only some users are seeing it. While Android Police mentions that the button only directs users to YouTube Shorts, one of my colleagues here at The Verge found that the feature also shows them random full-length videos. It's still not clear if YouTube takes your watch history into account when picking the random videos it plays or how widely Google is rolling out this feature.

This has been a thing for a long time

[Luckyo]

This has been a thing on youtube for a very long time in all formats I've ever used it in, just in a slightly different form. It just popped a "want to watch something new?" instead of a video in your feed every once in a while.

Guess someone at the clickbait rags had trouble meeting their AI written article quota this week.

How about fixing the front page algorithm first?

[SoCalChris]

How about they fix their suggestion algorithm on the front page first? It keeps suggesting things I've already watched, things I have no interest in, and things tangentially related to something that I watched once several months ago. It's showing me suggestions for everything except videos from channels that I've subscribed to.

And yes, I know I can go to the "Subscriptions" tab to see all of the newest stuff from my subscriptions, but I'd like a mix of new and old stuff from my subscriptions that I haven't seen yet. Their algorithm is absolutely useless.

Re:

[tokul]

> Their algorithm is absolutely useless.

Their algorithm works fine. It can find and offer for viewing compromised accounts filled with scam videos faster than their abuse team lifts their arses and do their job.

Re:

[Askmum]

It's showing me suggestions for everything except videos from channels that I've subscribed to.

How? Videos from channels that I've subscribed to are always in the suggestion list for me. Even videos from channels that I've subscribed to and I've already watched. And I want them out. Because as you say, their suggestion algorithm sucks balls through paper straws. They sometimes even suggest a video twice on the same page.

Re:

[jonadab]

That's a fundamentally impossible problem. Figuring out what someone would want to watch is hard even for an intelligent human who knows the viewer in question very well. I wouldn't expect members of my immediate family to reliably pick out YouTube videos I would actually want to watch; why would I expect a computer to be able to manage it with any consistency?

Just Ads

[Roger W Moore]

It's part of a new strategy to get around ad blockers - it just "randomly" picks ads to play with the excuse that you did ask for "something" and this is "something"!

An "I'm feeling lucky" button

[thesjaakspoiler]

How original!
Where did I see that before?

Re:

[kazbek]

Something called "Television" maybe?

The 'front page' already does this

[Malays2b0wen]

Just close your eyes, scroll down, and click. What this button is doing is automating this part.

Aaaand.... it's an ad

[Arnonyrnous Covvard]

Nice try, Google.

Buries a problem rather than fixes it I guess

[a5y]

Before if recommendations was showing me 10 different thumbnails of a YouTube React Face with a clickbait title I'd see it as a shitshow; this maybe just shows me 1/10th of the busted recommendations and doesn't put the focus on the repulsive thumbnail or condescending title.

I wonder which will happen first: they axe the feature as soon as people liking it, or they experiment with stuffing it full of adverts to the point it makes people protest then dial it back only after the damage is done?

FFS.

[Motleypuss]

Technology can't solve human problems. If you don't know what to watch, Google new media.

Given how shitty even the recommends are

[Eunomion]

Good luck letting them just pick something for you. That would get old almost instantly.

Watch nothing and do something useful

[Brooklynoid]

"... that directs you to a random video when you don't know what to watch."

If you don't know what to watch, why not do something else that's not a pointless time sink?

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

I'd rather watch their ad blocker blocker message than whatever they want me to see.

But use both Freetube and Newpipe to watch YouTube videos, and never take a look at the "what's hot" list.

URLroulette

[kmoser]

URLroulette is back! How exciting to relive the early days of the Internet.

Re: URLroulette

[Badlands]

Yes, although my fave was the ORIGINAL stumbleupon. This concept is still viable, especially since content has gone exponential, and the front page algorithms seem to be pushing me into corners that I donâ(TM)t really wanna go. If the algo for this is more random, then it would truly be valuable to content adventurers like myself.

Youtube tests something

[tokul]

"Autoplay on" is the default.

Nah

[glowworm]

With a price rise from $17,99 to $32.99, forget it. Can afford Netflix and Prime and Apple TV all from savings by unsubscribing.

Finally!

[nospam007]

"mobile app that directs you to a random video when you don't know what to watch. "

At last, I got new ear-cushions for my headphone and I searched for the video on how to change them, now I get only suggestions of how to change ear-cushions on every imaginable head-phones.

Artificial Stupidity definitely in need of AI.