this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Copy the URL, open it in a private window with ublock origin set to allowed in private windows. Can still view the video, and now they also can't attribute it to your user account.
So they lose again.
They can definitely still associate it to your household by IP though. Me and my roommates get video suggestions for things the others are interested in because of the IP tracking.
While they can track your IP for all sorts of nefarious purposes, they can't and won't associate it to use of an ad blocker if the ad blocker has successfully blocked their ads because they, by definition, don't know that you've blocked them. If they did they would show the popup.
Yikes lol
I think a VPN will then help with this.
Or just don’t ever sign in to YouTube and always clear cookies when you close the browser. And out of curiosity, why do people actually sign into YouTube? For “favorites” I just use my browsers bookmarks and it’s not like “hitting that bell” actually helps me because usually I won’t watch a just published video until I’m ready to actually watch something. So struggling to think of a reason to sign in except for the one time I need to increase the subscriber count for them. And even then, I promptly log out.
Because their algorithm is pretty damn good at recommending relevant stuff. For example, titanfall 2 got revived and I found a lot of small youtubers (<20k subs) making some incredibly good content through it. The secret is to click "not interested" on all the clickbait crap often enough and at some point it'll learn.
Though I do use
on an android TV and block out crap like shorts altogether because google's youtube app is unusable.
I kind of like the recommendations that populate aligned with my sub interests, basically
Only thing I can think of is getting notified for new videos from youtubers you’re subscribed to and the convenience of saving the play position when you don’t finish a video
They don't work over multiple devices though, unless you have an account for your browser I guess.
Firefox syncs all my bookmarks for me across all devices. So that might be the account thing you’re talking about.
Like most things, it's their recommendation engine that is actually pretty good. For as much as people complain about "the algorithm", it's useful enough that it surfaces unknown people constantly for me, and suggests things that I am interested in watching (metalworking videos, welding, machining, 3d printing, godot programming, etc.) Without an account you just get... normie bullshit clickbait.