Youtube is one of the largest platforms on the internet with a reported monthly active user base of 2.7 billion users. It is the second most popular social media platform worldwide, which could not be accomplished without a finely tuned recommender system to keep users hooked on the platform. They have developed this system by gathering data from multiple different sources, and implementing them in a series of steps. This information is presented to users in intuitive ways as well. Here we will examine the ways in which these factors work together.
Youtube’s UI consists of several different sections, the most important of which on their home page is the search bar. They provide a way to search for videos matching the description of what you’re looking for, and will then give the user a list of videos to choose from. Additionally on their homepage shows several recommended videos to the user immediately based on your previous viewing habits. On the left they have options to explore channels the user is subscribed to, or topics of videos Youtube recommends users would like. However, tucked in between the search bar and recommended videos is an ad stretching across the entire width of the website.
Upon clicking on a video we see a centered window for watching said video, with the search bar present. The biggest changes are how on the right side of the screen there is a list of videos recommended to you, with some of them being labeled as “sponsored”. On top of this list is a large ad that the user can click to open the website in another tab or window. This page also includes ways to “like” the video, subscribe to the channel, share the video or comment. There are options to purchase merchandise from the creator as well, with links to a different website. Once the video finishes, more recommendations pop up where the video once played. There is, however, an option to turn on autoplay, which will continuously roll videos until the user chooses to stop it yourself or if it has autoplayed for 4 hours.
When using their mobile app, Youtube has recently been focusing more on Shorts, or short form content. These Shorts are the first thing the user will see upon opening the app, taking up the entire screen, forcing users to scroll past their newest innovation to get to a more “classic” version of Youtube where a feed of recommended videos is presented to you, with advertisements linking elsewhere or sponsored videos intersperesed. On the top of the app there is still an option for searching, and at the bottom there are five buttons - Home (what we have just discussed), Shorts (a page dedicated to a feed of Shorts), Subscriptions (a feed of videos from creators one is subscribed to), You (a page hosting your playlists and viewing history), and finally a button to create a video oneself. (1)
These videos, as previously mentioned, are recommended to users based on their viewing habits, as well as watch time, community engagement (likes and comments) and the click through rate (how much scrolling through the video users do and if the video is finished). The search feature is SEO optimized, with Youtube claiming they focus on three things in particular to determine search results - Relevance, Engagement and Quality. They also take into account your location and time of day when determining your results and recommendations. (2)
To put it succinctly, Youtube uses a two step process in determining what videos to recommend to the user. First, they use Candidate Generation to narrow their potential videos. They do this based on user history and context, as previously stated. From there, they use Ranking to create a list of videos using the features of the videos (run time, click through rate, etc.), which is then presented to the user. (3)
While their user recommendations are fairly good at keeping people engaged with the platform, I believe Youtube ought to consider the following in order to improve the user experience:
Create a more controlled algorithm
Allow users to filter out more unwanted content by title, thumbnail or content instead of just filtering out disliked videos individually
Youtube has been doing more of this lately, but pushing smaller creators to the front of your recommendations
Youtube could implement changes to improve their returns as well:
More clearly delineate between sponsored videos and recommended videos in their feeds
As many mobile games have done, they can adopt an ad model where watching or engaging with ads allows for ad free viewing for a time
More varied ads
As someone who gets many of the same ads, it can be obnoxious to hear the same ad read over and over
Varying these can help keep interest
Youtube has an incredibly powerful recommendation system - one way this is reflected is how omnipresent it is. Their ability to target users with pertinent videos has resulted in many users, creators, and advertisements on the website. This ability comes from sourcing data from many different websites, demographic associations and watch history. However, there are still many ways in which Youtube could become a more accessible website, including a more user friendly algorithm experience, or even being more generous with the frequency and diversity of ads.