[2OEH8eoCRo0]

Perhaps it would be useful to separate these functionalities into two categories: User-initiated (searches) and passive (sidebar garbage, play next video trash, etc).

Giving the user the ability to search doesn't mean you're curating content with a recommendation engine.

[basch]

Search is absolutely a recommendation engine. It’s sorting by relevancy whether or not it’s keywords, similar videos, or play next.