{"slug": "youtube", "name": "YouTube", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Google's video-sharing platform for user and creator uploaded videos, with a paid Premium tier.", "recommenders": 8, "commenters": 35, "warners": 16, "score": -4.364, "rising": 0.04, "first": "2025-12-28", "latest": "2026-10-31", "why": "Liked for in-depth educational and enthusiast content, and for a feed that works well once curated through subscriptions and feedback.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 10, "compare": 1, "warn": 16}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 4, 1, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Curatable feed", "Learning content"], "caveat": "Recommendations and Shorts", "short_quote": "They are not worth it compared to YouTube that's free and for me the best", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.youtube.com", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["YouTube"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for in-depth educational and enthusiast content", "cites": [{"id": 797852784, "item_id": 49865799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49865799", "by": "stevep98", "date": "2026-09-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "YouTube, and AI chatbots totally enthrall me", "excerpt": "Is it the case that those that want to learn, will learn at a hugely increased rate, and those that don\u2019t, will not learn anything. I used to hate history class in high school. The teacher was crap, the subject matter (basically kings and queens of England in the 1200-1700 era. We didn\u2019t even cover ww2 in high school which was amazing to me. Having access to YouTube, and endless access to whatever angle of history I ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning history", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe"}, {"id": 784109328, "item_id": 49006833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006833", "by": "nativeit", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast", "excerpt": "This remains to be my go-to example for how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast whose interests have exceeded the bounds of typical documentaries and media produced for the general public. It\u2019s sadly getting more difficult to surface these kinds of examples, as we\u2019re seeing a lot of lowest common denominators and slop-py channels run by people who only want to be You", "context": "", "use_case": "expert enthusiast videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules"}, {"id": 784023872, "item_id": 49001492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49001492", "by": "spudlyo", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "one of the things I love about YouTube is when teachers record and share their lectures", "excerpt": "\"Writing for money and reservation of copyright are, at bottom, the ruin of literature. No one writes anything that is worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.\" -- Arthur Schopenhauer If you find this quote interesting, you should check out this video[0] by Christopher Anadale who is a teacher who does long form deep dive analysis & commentary on classic works of philosophy. As an aside, ", "context": "", "use_case": "lectures", "switched_from": "", "story": "'VPNs are lawful technical tools,' says EU Court in landmark copyright ruling"}]}, {"text": ", and for a feed that works well once curated through subscriptions and feedback.", "cites": [{"id": 788823712, "item_id": 49301482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301482", "by": "stickfigure", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great.", "excerpt": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great. Log in, pay for premium, and use the like and subscribe buttons liberally. Use the downvote button too. It learns. My feed is really fantastic. Once a month or so I notice some AI slop (usually with a handful of views - clearly the algo testing something out). Thumbs down, problem solved.", "context": "YouTube Premium subscriber", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "The TEMU-Fication of Software, Digital Goods and Services"}, {"id": 753778576, "item_id": 47111161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111161", "by": "dangus", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the subscriptions tab stays in its lane", "excerpt": "The title of the article is arguing semantics. Like it or not, the term \u201csocial media\u201d is what we use to describe scroll apps like TikTok. The content makes sense, though. It\u2019s nice to just follow people you actually know and see nothing else. I think this is what keeps YouTube usable for me: the subscriptions tab stays in its lane. I only use the home (algorithm) tab when I want to.", "context": "", "use_case": "following subscriptions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Attention Media \u2260 Social Networks"}, {"id": 791279760, "item_id": 49454985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49454985", "by": "bonoboTP", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I curate it to get good recommendations.", "excerpt": "To me it doesnt feel limiting. I curate it to get good recommendations. I also switch between accounts. One for trash binges, and one for everyday stuff, one for serious technical content etc. I use \"do not recommend this channel\" a lot, and click \"not interested\" a lot. Open the YouTube front page, remove stuff you would prefer not to have there, refresh, repeat, the algo will adapt. Same hygiene on social media. Ad", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nebula Sans"}, {"id": 805126144, "item_id": 50320384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50320384", "by": "zahirbmirza", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I find that my youtube feed is nicely curated to my interests.", "excerpt": "Very interesting. I find that my youtube feed is nicely curated to my interests. Adapting my interests with the algo well. Discovery is mostly en pointe. It is only when I use an unlogged-in browser that I see the world outside the Matrix. That is a slopfest indeed. What I would really like, now that you have opened up this amazing concept, is an ability to feed my own algo this entire collection. Inject all those vi", "context": "", "use_case": "video recommendations", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaints are recommendations pushing Shorts and clickbait", "cites": [{"id": 791284288, "item_id": 49455268, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455268", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Youtube is, for me, the worst streaming experience - by a significant margin.", "excerpt": "If I pay for a streaming service, I'll compare it with other paid streaming services. Youtube is, for me, the worst streaming experience - by a significant margin. Terrible curation. Terrible recommendations. Terrible UI. No way would I pay for it. (Oh, and if I paid, can I get it not to show me any Shorts?)", "context": "", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"}, {"id": 776834912, "item_id": 48552182, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48552182", "by": "jonplackett", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere?", "excerpt": "In the Home Screen it is always completely full of shorts. In my recommendations, full of shorts. There\u2019s no way to just never be shown shorts. It\u2019s very clear from the layout that they REALLY want you to watch shorts. I assume it\u2019s because they are more addictive = more views = more ads. But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere? If I want shitty short videos I\u2019ll use TikTok", "context": "pays for premium", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Hacked into the Worst E-Bike and Fixed It [video]"}, {"id": 761344256, "item_id": 47584016, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47584016", "by": "xvxvx", "date": "2026-03-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently.", "excerpt": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently. I\u2019m served up constant clickbait videos with fake reaction thumbnails. I know there\u2019s a lot more under the hood but it\u2019s a slog to find anything but that. Add in the insane amount of commercials and I have a product I use a lot less than in the past. As a side note: I find the recent trend in low quality commercials, made to look like reviews from ever", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube chat logs reveal employees aimed for \"viewer addiction\" and scrapped"}, {"id": 762497200, "item_id": 47656075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656075", "by": "loveparade", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The whole Youtube experience has gotten so bad over the years.", "excerpt": "The whole Youtube experience has gotten so bad over the years. I love the youtube content, but I wish I didn't have to deal with the UI/UX and recommendations that the YT app forces on me. Annoying Shorts. I'm trying to keep my watch history clean to \"steer\" recommendations, but YT keeps adding things to it that I didn't actually watch just because I happened to hover my mouse over a video, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}]}, {"text": ", along with a clunky interface and declining search.", "cites": [{"id": 803270448, "item_id": 50204403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50204403", "by": "addaon", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Every time I think about YouTube's interface it becomes more obvious it's made by people (?) who's brains just don't work like mine...", "excerpt": "> What many people would want it just a complete block on select YouTube channels This exists, doesn't it? \"Block channel\" (or rather, \"Don't recommend channel\") is probably the feature I use most... I must have thousands of thousands of channels on that list. The alternative is \"Not Interested\", but at least on AppleTV you're forced to then choose either \"I've already watched the video\" or \"I don't like the video\", ", "context": "", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using LLM for confidence scoring is a bad idea"}, {"id": 776869602, "item_id": 48554350, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554350", "by": "ahmdnassir1", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "excerpt": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely. Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable. YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "context": "", "use_case": "video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 762502480, "item_id": 47656405, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656405", "by": "jdprgm", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Yeah Youtube search is mediocre", "excerpt": "Yeah Youtube search is mediocre, though I feel like search has broadly declined across the entire web on all sorts of apps and services I use. Not to mention all the actual \"search engines\" feeling less and less powerful every year. I don't get it.", "context": "", "use_case": "video search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}, {"id": 762496128, "item_id": 47656008, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656008", "by": "VenezuelaFree", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Search is the reason I stopped watching youtube", "excerpt": "Search is the reason I stopped watching youtube, I used to view and discover so many nice stuff in there, tutorials, new hobbies, new music, new creators with different interests, etc but now it's pretty much impossible to find, you are forced to watch the 3 top videos, some 3 ads and then it forces you to watch some other random unrelated crap, it's so annoying and frustrating It got so bad that even searching the f", "context": "", "use_case": "video discovery", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Curatable feed", "summary": "Commenters say subscriptions, likes, dislikes and 'not interested' keep the feed relevant.", "quotes": [{"id": 788823712, "item_id": 49301482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301482", "by": "stickfigure", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great.", "excerpt": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great. Log in, pay for premium, and use the like and subscribe buttons liberally. Use the downvote button too. It learns. My feed is really fantastic. Once a month or so I notice some AI slop (usually with a handful of views - clearly the algo testing something out). Thumbs down, problem solved.", "context": "YouTube Premium subscriber", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "The TEMU-Fication of Software, Digital Goods and Services"}, {"id": 791279760, "item_id": 49454985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49454985", "by": "bonoboTP", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I curate it to get good recommendations.", "excerpt": "To me it doesnt feel limiting. I curate it to get good recommendations. I also switch between accounts. One for trash binges, and one for everyday stuff, one for serious technical content etc. I use \"do not recommend this channel\" a lot, and click \"not interested\" a lot. Open the YouTube front page, remove stuff you would prefer not to have there, refresh, repeat, the algo will adapt. Same hygiene on social media. Ad", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nebula Sans"}, {"id": 753778576, "item_id": 47111161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111161", "by": "dangus", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the subscriptions tab stays in its lane", "excerpt": "The title of the article is arguing semantics. Like it or not, the term \u201csocial media\u201d is what we use to describe scroll apps like TikTok. The content makes sense, though. It\u2019s nice to just follow people you actually know and see nothing else. I think this is what keeps YouTube usable for me: the subscriptions tab stays in its lane. I only use the home (algorithm) tab when I want to.", "context": "", "use_case": "following subscriptions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Attention Media \u2260 Social Networks"}]}, {"label": "Learning content", "summary": "Valued for deep dives, recorded lectures and enthusiast-level material.", "quotes": [{"id": 797852784, "item_id": 49865799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49865799", "by": "stevep98", "date": "2026-09-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "YouTube, and AI chatbots totally enthrall me", "excerpt": "Is it the case that those that want to learn, will learn at a hugely increased rate, and those that don\u2019t, will not learn anything. I used to hate history class in high school. The teacher was crap, the subject matter (basically kings and queens of England in the 1200-1700 era. We didn\u2019t even cover ww2 in high school which was amazing to me. Having access to YouTube, and endless access to whatever angle of history I ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning history", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe"}, {"id": 784023872, "item_id": 49001492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49001492", "by": "spudlyo", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "one of the things I love about YouTube is when teachers record and share their lectures", "excerpt": "\"Writing for money and reservation of copyright are, at bottom, the ruin of literature. No one writes anything that is worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.\" -- Arthur Schopenhauer If you find this quote interesting, you should check out this video[0] by Christopher Anadale who is a teacher who does long form deep dive analysis & commentary on classic works of philosophy. As an aside, ", "context": "", "use_case": "lectures", "switched_from": "", "story": "'VPNs are lawful technical tools,' says EU Court in landmark copyright ruling"}, {"id": 784109328, "item_id": 49006833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006833", "by": "nativeit", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast", "excerpt": "This remains to be my go-to example for how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast whose interests have exceeded the bounds of typical documentaries and media produced for the general public. It\u2019s sadly getting more difficult to surface these kinds of examples, as we\u2019re seeing a lot of lowest common denominators and slop-py channels run by people who only want to be You", "context": "", "use_case": "expert enthusiast videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules"}]}, {"label": "Streaming value", "summary": "Some prefer it to paid streaming services and to Spotify for discovery.", "quotes": [{"id": 764343744, "item_id": 47771484, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771484", "by": "paul7986", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They are not worth it compared to YouTube that's free and for me the best", "excerpt": "Only streaming app I use and always have used. I have subscribe to the others yet always canceled even at $3 a month. They are not worth it compared to YouTube that's free and for me the best using my Mac Mini connected to my TV (wireless mouse as remote).", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming video", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"}, {"id": 782923762, "item_id": 48932735, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932735", "by": "parasti", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Youtube is miles ahead of this.", "excerpt": "Spotify is fundamentally broken in a certain, unfixable way, IMO. I use it and have a subscription, but I dread opening their app and looking at the starting screen that shows the same artists I listened to twenty years ago in pointless blurbs like \"presave this (you can't listen to it)\", \"jump back in (you literally already listened to it)\", \"your favorite artists (not according to you but according to us)\". There i", "context": "", "use_case": "music discovery", "switched_from": "", "story": "The lost joy of music piracy"}, {"id": 776869602, "item_id": 48554350, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554350", "by": "ahmdnassir1", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "excerpt": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely. Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable. YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "context": "", "use_case": "video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}]}, {"label": "Premium ad removal", "summary": "Some say paying for Premium to remove ads makes it useful.", "quotes": [{"id": 781825872, "item_id": 48864117, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864117", "by": "_the_inflator", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "YouTube is useful - only with the subscription to get rid of all the ads.", "excerpt": "Hm, I use Facebook twice a year, to thank folks for my b-day greetings and for checking my account. Some with Insta. I am not the least addicted to it. I suspended TikTok, because it is of low value. YouTube is useful - only with the subscription to get rid of all the ads. Sorry, addictive design is once again another strawman. No one forces you to use these crappy apps. Same with the iPhone. Need free time? iPhone w", "context": "", "use_case": "video", "switched_from": "", "story": "EU Commission: addictive design Instagram and Facebook in breach of the DSA"}, {"id": 788823712, "item_id": 49301482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301482", "by": "stickfigure", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great.", "excerpt": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great. Log in, pay for premium, and use the like and subscribe buttons liberally. Use the downvote button too. It learns. My feed is really fantastic. Once a month or so I notice some AI slop (usually with a handful of views - clearly the algo testing something out). Thumbs down, problem solved.", "context": "YouTube Premium subscriber", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "The TEMU-Fication of Software, Digital Goods and Services"}]}, {"label": "Creator payouts", "summary": "One commenter notes creators get 60% of ad revenue, funding good content.", "quotes": [{"id": 780238833, "item_id": 48764927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48764927", "by": "WarmWash", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Creators get 60% of youtube's ad revenue from youtube.", "excerpt": "Creators get 60% of youtube's ad revenue from youtube. What does Peertube pay? There is your answer. If people want good stuff, there needs to be money flowing to the source of it. The internet desperately needs to shed this \"everything good is totally free\" mindset, because what is actually manifests as is \"I love taking without the requirement of giving\".", "context": "", "use_case": "video hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Recommendations and Shorts", "summary": "Feeds are criticized as clickbait-heavy and full of Shorts, even for Premium subscribers.", "quotes": [{"id": 791284288, "item_id": 49455268, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455268", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Youtube is, for me, the worst streaming experience - by a significant margin.", "excerpt": "If I pay for a streaming service, I'll compare it with other paid streaming services. Youtube is, for me, the worst streaming experience - by a significant margin. Terrible curation. Terrible recommendations. Terrible UI. No way would I pay for it. (Oh, and if I paid, can I get it not to show me any Shorts?)", "context": "", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"}, {"id": 776834912, "item_id": 48552182, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48552182", "by": "jonplackett", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere?", "excerpt": "In the Home Screen it is always completely full of shorts. In my recommendations, full of shorts. There\u2019s no way to just never be shown shorts. It\u2019s very clear from the layout that they REALLY want you to watch shorts. I assume it\u2019s because they are more addictive = more views = more ads. But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere? If I want shitty short videos I\u2019ll use TikTok", "context": "pays for premium", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Hacked into the Worst E-Bike and Fixed It [video]"}, {"id": 761344256, "item_id": 47584016, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47584016", "by": "xvxvx", "date": "2026-03-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently.", "excerpt": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently. I\u2019m served up constant clickbait videos with fake reaction thumbnails. I know there\u2019s a lot more under the hood but it\u2019s a slog to find anything but that. Add in the insane amount of commercials and I have a product I use a lot less than in the past. As a side note: I find the recent trend in low quality commercials, made to look like reviews from ever", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube chat logs reveal employees aimed for \"viewer addiction\" and scrapped"}]}, {"label": "Interface and bugs", "summary": "Users report confusing UI, back-button bugs, buffering in the app and a large app size.", "quotes": [{"id": 803270448, "item_id": 50204403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50204403", "by": "addaon", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Every time I think about YouTube's interface it becomes more obvious it's made by people (?) who's brains just don't work like mine...", "excerpt": "> What many people would want it just a complete block on select YouTube channels This exists, doesn't it? \"Block channel\" (or rather, \"Don't recommend channel\") is probably the feature I use most... I must have thousands of thousands of channels on that list. The alternative is \"Not Interested\", but at least on AppleTV you're forced to then choose either \"I've already watched the video\" or \"I don't like the video\", ", "context": "", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using LLM for confidence scoring is a bad idea"}, {"id": 764204768, "item_id": 47762798, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762798", "by": "alpaca128", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they'll fix the back button bugs on YouTube", "excerpt": "Great! So they'll fix the back button bugs on YouTube, and return me to the previous set of video recommendations when I use it on the homepage, right? Right? And let me return to the actual site when it detects that I lost the web connection for 0.01 seconds and hides all the content, and I then press the back button?", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A new spam policy for \"back button hijacking\""}, {"id": 782739792, "item_id": 48921237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921237", "by": "Laurel1234", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've had to disable the YouTube app and switch to mobile web because it would just buffer nonstop on everything", "excerpt": "It's pretty hard to separate this from confirmation bias. But I've had to disable the YouTube app and switch to mobile web because it would just buffer nonstop on everything; never had issues like with it like this before.", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching on mobile", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}]}, {"label": "Search quality", "summary": "Search is described as worse, sometimes failing to find videos even by exact title.", "quotes": [{"id": 762496128, "item_id": 47656008, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656008", "by": "VenezuelaFree", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Search is the reason I stopped watching youtube", "excerpt": "Search is the reason I stopped watching youtube, I used to view and discover so many nice stuff in there, tutorials, new hobbies, new music, new creators with different interests, etc but now it's pretty much impossible to find, you are forced to watch the 3 top videos, some 3 ads and then it forces you to watch some other random unrelated crap, it's so annoying and frustrating It got so bad that even searching the f", "context": "", "use_case": "video discovery", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}, {"id": 777877889, "item_id": 48617368, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617368", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Even searching on youtube has recently gotten worse.", "excerpt": "I want Google gone. This company is causing too many problems. I am still sometimes using Google Search. First results are now almost always videos on youtube, aka self-promo. These videos are in 99.9% of the search results I use, totally useless and worthless. Even searching on youtube has recently gotten worse. It is also crap now. I know that because I bookmark various videos, and I can not find older videos anymo", "context": "", "use_case": "video search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Hits 50% IPv6"}, {"id": 762502480, "item_id": 47656405, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656405", "by": "jdprgm", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Yeah Youtube search is mediocre", "excerpt": "Yeah Youtube search is mediocre, though I feel like search has broadly declined across the entire web on all sorts of apps and services I use. Not to mention all the actual \"search engines\" feeling less and less powerful every year. I don't get it.", "context": "", "use_case": "video search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}]}, {"label": "Ads", "summary": "Commenters complain about heavy and intrusive ads, especially on mobile.", "quotes": [{"id": 805134384, "item_id": 50320899, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50320899", "by": "firefoxd", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With the new wave of ads on mobile, the ones with the \"next\" button, I gave up.", "excerpt": "With the new wave of ads on mobile, the ones with the \"next\" button, I gave up. Instead I use the app to find videos and copy them to pipepipe. Maybe the curated list can be exported to load on other apps.", "context": "", "use_case": "finding videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}, {"id": 761344256, "item_id": 47584016, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47584016", "by": "xvxvx", "date": "2026-03-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently.", "excerpt": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently. I\u2019m served up constant clickbait videos with fake reaction thumbnails. I know there\u2019s a lot more under the hood but it\u2019s a slog to find anything but that. Add in the insane amount of commercials and I have a product I use a lot less than in the past. As a side note: I find the recent trend in low quality commercials, made to look like reviews from ever", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube chat logs reveal employees aimed for \"viewer addiction\" and scrapped"}, {"id": 791674512, "item_id": 49479657, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479657", "by": "nemomarx", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Ars, I pay for YouTube, I pay for discord nitro at the highest tier.", "excerpt": "When I do pay for services, they can just add ads anyway to get more money. Look at Netflix or Amazon prime for this, or even cable. How do I pay for something with a guarantee they'll leave the ad money on the table? I pay for Ars, I pay for YouTube, I pay for discord nitro at the highest tier. Notice that all of those services are still ad funded?", "context": "", "use_case": "paid subscription", "switched_from": "", "story": "Advertisers Could Soon Demand 'Verified Clicks'"}]}, {"label": "AI content", "summary": "AI-generated slop and unwanted AI dubs reduce the value for some users.", "quotes": [{"id": 742562080, "item_id": 46410130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46410130", "by": "mark_l_watson", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "My wife and I pay for YouTube and the prevalence of AI Slop definitely reduces the value we get for our money.", "excerpt": "My wife and I pay for YouTube and the prevalence of AI Slop definitely reduces the value we get for our money. YouTube has done a fairly good job over the years of providing useful recommendations but lately I always immediately \u2018back out\u2019 of any AI generated videos or materials with robot-voiced narrations. I keep hoping that the algorithms quickly learn to not show me this stuff, but in the meantime I have had to c", "context": "paying subscriber", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "A new research shows that 21-33% of YouTube's feed may consist of AI slop"}, {"id": 797275456, "item_id": 49829716, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49829716", "by": "radicalbyte", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I absolutely hate that YouTube is doing that", "excerpt": "I absolutely hate that YouTube is doing that; I'm Dutch/English so obviously fluent in both languages yet YouTube randomly decides to give me this horrific AI dub for some Dutch videos. They've broken Android too, you can't even set it up with multiple languages. I use three daily - Dutch / English / American - and also a bit of German / French / Spanish / Italian here and there. Plus of course Latin because on my En", "context": "multilingual Dutch/English speaker", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta takes down a critical video about meta AI Glasses after filming at Meta"}, {"id": 784109328, "item_id": 49006833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006833", "by": "nativeit", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast", "excerpt": "This remains to be my go-to example for how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast whose interests have exceeded the bounds of typical documentaries and media produced for the general public. It\u2019s sadly getting more difficult to surface these kinds of examples, as we\u2019re seeing a lot of lowest common denominators and slop-py channels run by people who only want to be You", "context": "", "use_case": "expert enthusiast videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules"}]}, {"label": "Addictive design", "summary": "Some removed or avoid the app over engagement-driven, hooking UX.", "quotes": [{"id": 764595840, "item_id": 47787240, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47787240", "by": "thedeep_mind", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I removed the YT app from my phone because of all the addicting/simulating UX and hooking content.", "excerpt": "I removed the YT app from my phone because of all the addicting/simulating UX and hooking content. It was eating up my quiet/thinking time, and led to brainfog and brainrot. And then, the blame is being put on me as the user who has self control issues. I found that very twisted. Some responsiblity is mine, sure. But having an army of PMs and engineers whose only job is to keep users on the platform, longer and more ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now lets you turn off Shorts"}, {"id": 792660848, "item_id": 49541303, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49541303", "by": "_6wbq", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I recommend taking a page out of the FSF's book and just straight up not using it, because it doesn't respect its users.", "excerpt": "YouTube's only goal is to make more money. Most YouTubers' only goal is to get more views. Sure it can be useful but that's a perfect excuse to live on forever. People were fine before YouTube, and you can learn anything from words an images. I recommend taking a page out of the FSF's book and just straight up not using it, because it doesn't respect its users.", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making the Internet Boring"}]}], "who": [{"by": "jan_m_savage", "context": "has ADHD", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49593326", "date": "2026-09-07"}, {"by": "stickfigure", "context": "YouTube Premium subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301482", "date": "2026-08-14"}, {"by": "mark_l_watson", "context": "paying subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46410130", "date": "2025-12-28"}], "tags": ["for self-directed learning", "for long-form video", "for TV viewing", "for Premium subscribers"], "use_cases": ["video watching", "watching videos", "video", "video streaming", "video search", "finding videos"], "compared": [{"slug": "peertube", "name": "PeerTube", "co": 10, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "invidious", "name": "Invidious", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "tiktok", "name": "TikTok", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "spotify", "name": "Spotify", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "smarttube", "name": "SmartTube", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "pipepipe", "name": "PipePipe", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "ublock-origin", "name": "uBlock Origin", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47655392", "title": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319510", "title": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48540499", "title": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50176082", "title": "Using LLM for confidence scoring is a bad idea", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034123", "title": "MrBeast 'spends millions reverse engineering the algorithms on each platform'", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49857442", "title": "Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1}, "2026-04": {"warn": 5, "recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 3, "neutral": 2}, "2026-07": {"compare": 1, "recommend": 4, "warn": 1}, "2026-08": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 3}, "2026-09": {"warn": 2, "neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2, "warn": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 805134384, "item_id": 50320899, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50320899", "by": "firefoxd", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "With the new wave of ads on mobile, the ones with the \"next\" button, I gave up.", "excerpt": "With the new wave of ads on mobile, the ones with the \"next\" button, I gave up. Instead I use the app to find videos and copy them to pipepipe. Maybe the curated list can be exported to load on other apps.", "context": "", "use_case": "finding videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}, {"id": 805126144, "item_id": 50320384, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50320384", "by": "zahirbmirza", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I find that my youtube feed is nicely curated to my interests.", "excerpt": "Very interesting. I find that my youtube feed is nicely curated to my interests. Adapting my interests with the algo well. Discovery is mostly en pointe. It is only when I use an unlogged-in browser that I see the world outside the Matrix. That is a slopfest indeed. What I would really like, now that you have opened up this amazing concept, is an ability to feed my own algo this entire collection. Inject all those vi", "context": "", "use_case": "video recommendations", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}, {"id": 803270448, "item_id": 50204403, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50204403", "by": "addaon", "date": "2026-10-23", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Every time I think about YouTube's interface it becomes more obvious it's made by people (?) who's brains just don't work like mine...", "excerpt": "> What many people would want it just a complete block on select YouTube channels This exists, doesn't it? \"Block channel\" (or rather, \"Don't recommend channel\") is probably the feature I use most... I must have thousands of thousands of channels on that list. The alternative is \"Not Interested\", but at least on AppleTV you're forced to then choose either \"I've already watched the video\" or \"I don't like the video\", ", "context": "", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using LLM for confidence scoring is a bad idea"}, {"id": 800571120, "item_id": 50035695, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50035695", "by": "gizajob", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use YouTube a lot", "excerpt": "It\u2019s weird - I use YouTube a lot and I\u2019ve never ever been recommended one of his videos.", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "MrBeast 'spends millions reverse engineering the algorithms on each platform'"}, {"id": 797852784, "item_id": 49865799, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49865799", "by": "stevep98", "date": "2026-09-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "YouTube, and AI chatbots totally enthrall me", "excerpt": "Is it the case that those that want to learn, will learn at a hugely increased rate, and those that don\u2019t, will not learn anything. I used to hate history class in high school. The teacher was crap, the subject matter (basically kings and queens of England in the 1200-1700 era. We didn\u2019t even cover ww2 in high school which was amazing to me. Having access to YouTube, and endless access to whatever angle of history I ", "context": "", "use_case": "learning history", "switched_from": "", "story": "Plunging test scores are a slow-moving catastrophe"}, {"id": 797275456, "item_id": 49829716, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49829716", "by": "radicalbyte", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I absolutely hate that YouTube is doing that", "excerpt": "I absolutely hate that YouTube is doing that; I'm Dutch/English so obviously fluent in both languages yet YouTube randomly decides to give me this horrific AI dub for some Dutch videos. They've broken Android too, you can't even set it up with multiple languages. I use three daily - Dutch / English / American - and also a bit of German / French / Spanish / Italian here and there. Plus of course Latin because on my En", "context": "multilingual Dutch/English speaker", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta takes down a critical video about meta AI Glasses after filming at Meta"}, {"id": 793716640, "item_id": 49607290, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49607290", "by": "latexr", "date": "2026-09-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "You can already do this on youtube by not allowing history. And what a bliss that is!", "excerpt": "> You can already do this on youtube by not allowing history. And what a bliss that is! I love it how YouTube thinks it\u2019s punishing me by turning off the home page recommendations if you disable history (it didn\u2019t always do that) while it\u2019s in fact a favour. In my country (and I assume most/every country), the default home feed is such a cesspool of vomit-inducing clickbait garbage that it boils my blood to even glan", "context": "", "use_case": "video without recommendations", "switched_from": "", "story": "My Feed, My Way"}, {"id": 793493216, "item_id": 49593326, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49593326", "by": "jan_m_savage", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Youtube for long-form video and only select videos", "excerpt": "If you have ADHD, it's particularly damaging to doomscroll. It worsens my ADHD I've found; hence, except Youtube, I am off all social media of the Tiktok/X type. I use Youtube for long-form video and only select videos, and XCancel/Nitter for specific feeds by certain people, which I read according to a predetermined schedule.", "context": "has ADHD", "use_case": "long-form video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Doomscrolling ourselves to death"}, {"id": 792660848, "item_id": 49541303, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49541303", "by": "_6wbq", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I recommend taking a page out of the FSF's book and just straight up not using it, because it doesn't respect its users.", "excerpt": "YouTube's only goal is to make more money. Most YouTubers' only goal is to get more views. Sure it can be useful but that's a perfect excuse to live on forever. People were fine before YouTube, and you can learn anything from words an images. I recommend taking a page out of the FSF's book and just straight up not using it, because it doesn't respect its users.", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making the Internet Boring"}, {"id": 791674512, "item_id": 49479657, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479657", "by": "nemomarx", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Ars, I pay for YouTube, I pay for discord nitro at the highest tier.", "excerpt": "When I do pay for services, they can just add ads anyway to get more money. Look at Netflix or Amazon prime for this, or even cable. How do I pay for something with a guarantee they'll leave the ad money on the table? I pay for Ars, I pay for YouTube, I pay for discord nitro at the highest tier. Notice that all of those services are still ad funded?", "context": "", "use_case": "paid subscription", "switched_from": "", "story": "Advertisers Could Soon Demand 'Verified Clicks'"}, {"id": 791284288, "item_id": 49455268, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455268", "by": "BeetleB", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Youtube is, for me, the worst streaming experience - by a significant margin.", "excerpt": "If I pay for a streaming service, I'll compare it with other paid streaming services. Youtube is, for me, the worst streaming experience - by a significant margin. Terrible curation. Terrible recommendations. Terrible UI. No way would I pay for it. (Oh, and if I paid, can I get it not to show me any Shorts?)", "context": "", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"}, {"id": 791279760, "item_id": 49454985, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49454985", "by": "bonoboTP", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I curate it to get good recommendations.", "excerpt": "To me it doesnt feel limiting. I curate it to get good recommendations. I also switch between accounts. One for trash binges, and one for everyday stuff, one for serious technical content etc. I use \"do not recommend this channel\" a lot, and click \"not interested\" a lot. Open the YouTube front page, remove stuff you would prefer not to have there, refresh, repeat, the algo will adapt. Same hygiene on social media. Ad", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nebula Sans"}, {"id": 789721761, "item_id": 49357610, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49357610", "by": "frabcus", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use YouTube heavily with a browser plugin that hides recommendations", "excerpt": "Yep - some emotional core of my being (not rational) hates ML recommendations. I'm a happy paid user of Spotify and just ignore the recommendations (I'm not looking at a screen), and I use YouTube heavily with a browser plugin that hides recommendations (which kills the end of video loop). I get recommendations from people, and use the products for curation, bookmarking and subscriptions. They're good. Whereas Instag", "context": "", "use_case": "video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta's blockbuster trial draws parallels to big tobacco"}, {"id": 788823712, "item_id": 49301482, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49301482", "by": "stickfigure", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great.", "excerpt": "I use YouTube all the time and it's great. Log in, pay for premium, and use the like and subscribe buttons liberally. Use the downvote button too. It learns. My feed is really fantastic. Once a month or so I notice some AI slop (usually with a handful of views - clearly the algo testing something out). Thumbs down, problem solved.", "context": "YouTube Premium subscriber", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "The TEMU-Fication of Software, Digital Goods and Services"}, {"id": 786503537, "item_id": 49156471, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49156471", "by": "abtinf", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the abomination that is YouTube", "excerpt": "The value of Kagi is hard to overstate. You have to actually use it and try out the features. Some things that I wish were different about Kagi: I wish Kagi Ultimate LLM credits could be shared with the whole family, rather than each person having to sign up for an ultimate level account. That costs an additional $162/year per person, which makes no sense for my younger kids (even though their Research Agent and imag", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the viable alternatives to DuckDuckGo?"}, {"id": 784109328, "item_id": 49006833, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006833", "by": "nativeit", "date": "2026-07-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast", "excerpt": "This remains to be my go-to example for how YouTube can be a remarkably effective and valuable platform for the kind of enthusiast whose interests have exceeded the bounds of typical documentaries and media produced for the general public. It\u2019s sadly getting more difficult to surface these kinds of examples, as we\u2019re seeing a lot of lowest common denominators and slop-py channels run by people who only want to be You", "context": "", "use_case": "expert enthusiast videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Original Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code for command and lunar modules"}, {"id": 784023872, "item_id": 49001492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49001492", "by": "spudlyo", "date": "2026-07-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "one of the things I love about YouTube is when teachers record and share their lectures", "excerpt": "\"Writing for money and reservation of copyright are, at bottom, the ruin of literature. No one writes anything that is worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.\" -- Arthur Schopenhauer If you find this quote interesting, you should check out this video[0] by Christopher Anadale who is a teacher who does long form deep dive analysis & commentary on classic works of philosophy. As an aside, ", "context": "", "use_case": "lectures", "switched_from": "", "story": "'VPNs are lawful technical tools,' says EU Court in landmark copyright ruling"}, {"id": 782923762, "item_id": 48932735, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932735", "by": "parasti", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Youtube is miles ahead of this.", "excerpt": "Spotify is fundamentally broken in a certain, unfixable way, IMO. I use it and have a subscription, but I dread opening their app and looking at the starting screen that shows the same artists I listened to twenty years ago in pointless blurbs like \"presave this (you can't listen to it)\", \"jump back in (you literally already listened to it)\", \"your favorite artists (not according to you but according to us)\". There i", "context": "", "use_case": "music discovery", "switched_from": "", "story": "The lost joy of music piracy"}, {"id": 782739792, "item_id": 48921237, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48921237", "by": "Laurel1234", "date": "2026-07-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've had to disable the YouTube app and switch to mobile web because it would just buffer nonstop on everything", "excerpt": "It's pretty hard to separate this from confirmation bias. But I've had to disable the YouTube app and switch to mobile web because it would just buffer nonstop on everything; never had issues like with it like this before.", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching on mobile", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Is it just me, or is software buggier across the board?"}, {"id": 781825872, "item_id": 48864117, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864117", "by": "_the_inflator", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "YouTube is useful - only with the subscription to get rid of all the ads.", "excerpt": "Hm, I use Facebook twice a year, to thank folks for my b-day greetings and for checking my account. Some with Insta. I am not the least addicted to it. I suspended TikTok, because it is of low value. YouTube is useful - only with the subscription to get rid of all the ads. Sorry, addictive design is once again another strawman. No one forces you to use these crappy apps. Same with the iPhone. Need free time? iPhone w", "context": "", "use_case": "video", "switched_from": "", "story": "EU Commission: addictive design Instagram and Facebook in breach of the DSA"}, {"id": 780238833, "item_id": 48764927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48764927", "by": "WarmWash", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Creators get 60% of youtube's ad revenue from youtube.", "excerpt": "Creators get 60% of youtube's ad revenue from youtube. What does Peertube pay? There is your answer. If people want good stuff, there needs to be money flowing to the source of it. The internet desperately needs to shed this \"everything good is totally free\" mindset, because what is actually manifests as is \"I love taking without the requirement of giving\".", "context": "", "use_case": "video hosting", "switched_from": "", "story": "PeerTube is a free, decentralized and federated video platform"}, {"id": 777877889, "item_id": 48617368, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617368", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-06-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Even searching on youtube has recently gotten worse.", "excerpt": "I want Google gone. This company is causing too many problems. I am still sometimes using Google Search. First results are now almost always videos on youtube, aka self-promo. These videos are in 99.9% of the search results I use, totally useless and worthless. Even searching on youtube has recently gotten worse. It is also crap now. I know that because I bookmark various videos, and I can not find older videos anymo", "context": "", "use_case": "video search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Hits 50% IPv6"}, {"id": 777721808, "item_id": 48607613, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48607613", "by": "ilovecake1984", "date": "2026-06-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use YouTube, but only watch stuff I SEARCH for or from people I have subscribed to.", "excerpt": "I use YouTube, but only watch stuff I SEARCH for or from people I have subscribed to. No watch next BS. If you have self control you can avoid the social media element of it. YouTube demonetisation tends to act as a reasonable steward on the platform, but it does need to be strengthened. I.e. make YouTube responsible as the publisher for any video with over 100k views. This would be totally doable.", "context": "", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "The UK's New Under-16 Social Media Ban Will Cause More Harm Than It Prevents"}, {"id": 776869602, "item_id": 48554350, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48554350", "by": "ahmdnassir1", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "excerpt": "I use Apple TV on every TV and skip the TV's built-in apps entirely. Plex is my main app\u2014reliable and predictable. YouTube is a close second despite having awful UI/UX.", "context": "", "use_case": "video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 776834912, "item_id": 48552182, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48552182", "by": "jonplackett", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere?", "excerpt": "In the Home Screen it is always completely full of shorts. In my recommendations, full of shorts. There\u2019s no way to just never be shown shorts. It\u2019s very clear from the layout that they REALLY want you to watch shorts. I assume it\u2019s because they are more addictive = more views = more ads. But I pay for YY premium! So why do they still insist on putting shorts everywhere? If I want shitty short videos I\u2019ll use TikTok", "context": "pays for premium", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "I Hacked into the Worst E-Bike and Fixed It [video]"}, {"id": 776809121, "item_id": 48550570, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48550570", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "whatever the Youtube App (330MB) and Netflix (183MB) are wasting my phone's space on", "excerpt": "Interesting. Honestly I had never considered that angle. Given that they really ought not to need anything but simple navigation of lists and grids to build a streaming app that is actually usable and fast, not whatever the Youtube App (330MB) and Netflix (183MB) are wasting my phone's space on... now I'm wondering if this forced parsimony imposed on the developers could be a reason to give Roku a try again. I admit ", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming app", "switched_from": "", "story": "Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal"}, {"id": 764595840, "item_id": 47787240, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47787240", "by": "thedeep_mind", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I removed the YT app from my phone because of all the addicting/simulating UX and hooking content.", "excerpt": "I removed the YT app from my phone because of all the addicting/simulating UX and hooking content. It was eating up my quiet/thinking time, and led to brainfog and brainrot. And then, the blame is being put on me as the user who has self control issues. I found that very twisted. Some responsiblity is mine, sure. But having an army of PMs and engineers whose only job is to keep users on the platform, longer and more ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now lets you turn off Shorts"}, {"id": 764343744, "item_id": 47771484, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771484", "by": "paul7986", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "They are not worth it compared to YouTube that's free and for me the best", "excerpt": "Only streaming app I use and always have used. I have subscribe to the others yet always canceled even at $3 a month. They are not worth it compared to YouTube that's free and for me the best using my Mac Mini connected to my TV (wireless mouse as remote).", "context": "", "use_case": "streaming video", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"}, {"id": 764204768, "item_id": 47762798, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762798", "by": "alpaca128", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "warn", "quote": "they'll fix the back button bugs on YouTube", "excerpt": "Great! So they'll fix the back button bugs on YouTube, and return me to the previous set of video recommendations when I use it on the homepage, right? Right? And let me return to the actual site when it detects that I lost the web connection for 0.01 seconds and hides all the content, and I then press the back button?", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A new spam policy for \"back button hijacking\""}, {"id": 762502480, "item_id": 47656405, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656405", "by": "jdprgm", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Yeah Youtube search is mediocre", "excerpt": "Yeah Youtube search is mediocre, though I feel like search has broadly declined across the entire web on all sorts of apps and services I use. Not to mention all the actual \"search engines\" feeling less and less powerful every year. I don't get it.", "context": "", "use_case": "video search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}, {"id": 762497200, "item_id": 47656075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656075", "by": "loveparade", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The whole Youtube experience has gotten so bad over the years.", "excerpt": "The whole Youtube experience has gotten so bad over the years. I love the youtube content, but I wish I didn't have to deal with the UI/UX and recommendations that the YT app forces on me. Annoying Shorts. I'm trying to keep my watch history clean to \"steer\" recommendations, but YT keeps adding things to it that I didn't actually watch just because I happened to hover my mouse over a video, etc.", "context": "", "use_case": "watching videos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}, {"id": 762496128, "item_id": 47656008, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656008", "by": "VenezuelaFree", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Search is the reason I stopped watching youtube", "excerpt": "Search is the reason I stopped watching youtube, I used to view and discover so many nice stuff in there, tutorials, new hobbies, new music, new creators with different interests, etc but now it's pretty much impossible to find, you are forced to watch the 3 top videos, some 3 ads and then it forces you to watch some other random unrelated crap, it's so annoying and frustrating It got so bad that even searching the f", "context": "", "use_case": "video discovery", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: YouTube search barely works, I made a search form with advanced filters"}, {"id": 761344256, "item_id": 47584016, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47584016", "by": "xvxvx", "date": "2026-03-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently.", "excerpt": "The YouTube algorithm has made it largely useless to me recently. I\u2019m served up constant clickbait videos with fake reaction thumbnails. I know there\u2019s a lot more under the hood but it\u2019s a slog to find anything but that. Add in the insane amount of commercials and I have a product I use a lot less than in the past. As a side note: I find the recent trend in low quality commercials, made to look like reviews from ever", "context": "", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube chat logs reveal employees aimed for \"viewer addiction\" and scrapped"}, {"id": 753778576, "item_id": 47111161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47111161", "by": "dangus", "date": "2026-02-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the subscriptions tab stays in its lane", "excerpt": "The title of the article is arguing semantics. Like it or not, the term \u201csocial media\u201d is what we use to describe scroll apps like TikTok. The content makes sense, though. It\u2019s nice to just follow people you actually know and see nothing else. I think this is what keeps YouTube usable for me: the subscriptions tab stays in its lane. I only use the home (algorithm) tab when I want to.", "context": "", "use_case": "following subscriptions", "switched_from": "", "story": "Attention Media \u2260 Social Networks"}, {"id": 742562080, "item_id": 46410130, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46410130", "by": "mark_l_watson", "date": "2025-12-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "My wife and I pay for YouTube and the prevalence of AI Slop definitely reduces the value we get for our money.", "excerpt": "My wife and I pay for YouTube and the prevalence of AI Slop definitely reduces the value we get for our money. YouTube has done a fairly good job over the years of providing useful recommendations but lately I always immediately \u2018back out\u2019 of any AI generated videos or materials with robot-voiced narrations. I keep hoping that the algorithms quickly learn to not show me this stuff, but in the meantime I have had to c", "context": "paying subscriber", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "A new research shows that 21-33% of YouTube's feed may consist of AI slop"}]}