[danpalmer]

Can anyone describe the problem and use-case in more detail? I've heard this before but it just doesn't resonate at all, and I'm a pretty heavy YouTube user.

I mostly watch videos from my home feed or from channels I subscribe to. When I search it's almost always either:

- film/game trailers I've heard about and want to find (e.g. gta vi trailer)

- videos I've watched before but maybe not liked, with a channel keyword and maybe video keyword (e.g. tom scott bell), or music

- tutorials, where I don't really care about the specific video, I care about the outcome (e.g. how to remove roller blind)

In all of these cases search seems to nail it. The trailer is always the first result (but could be from a variety of sources), the recall on videos I've seen before is basically perfect, and the tutorials get me to the right outcome.

Are people using search for discovery, like putting in a vague topic and trying to explore a topic from search? What specific kinds of queries does it do badly at?

[Barrin92]

>What specific kinds of queries does it do badly at?

in my experience all of them, because the experience for me currently is that youtube surfaces ~3 videos relevant to the search I entered, then the bizarre category of "here's other stuff you want to watch" (I don't) followed by "stuff you already watched but want to watch again" (I don't and didn't ask), followed by like 10 shorts and then again a handful of results relevant to the query

[danpalmer]

I haven't noticed this because in all of the above examples the first result is the one I want, almost without exception. In a scenario where the top result or two is correct, showing other stuff after result 3 doesn't sound that bad.

What sorts of searches are you doing? My guess is this really matters and that you're using search for a completely different purpose to me, but I don't know what that is.

[dns_snek]

I'm not the person you were asking, but broadly speaking, almost any instructional video.

How do I do/fix/repair/cook/make XYZ?

It's a complete lottery whether the top 3 results will actually answer the question and they usually won't.

[KevinMS]

I'm a heavy YT user and I don't have a problem either. I'm not sure what everybody is complaining about. Maybe its because I don't search on super specific things because I'm just looking for a larger topic, and I'm not sure if its actually returning all the best results because I don't know what it has to give me.

All this tool does is use YT search but makes it easier to include existing search switches to get more specific. (which I had forgotten about and I'm grateful the tool reminded me of them.

Really, if there's a problem, its not the search itself but how it prioritizes the search without the switches.

[rhdunn]

Examples:

- `dune book review`

- `sierpinski triangle`

- `full adder` -- better results, but includes an unrelated "previously watched" section

One of the main issues I've encountered is that when searching for something you generally see:

- 7 or so relevant results

- shorts (which I'm not interested in)

- "people also watched" / "previously watched" results -- I'm not interested in that, I just want what I'm looking for

- "channels new to you" -- can include results, so maybe okay

- "explore more" -- mostly irrelevant results to what I'm looking for

- "previously watched" -- may be fine, but mostly unrelated

After the first 7-10 results it generally becomes unusable.

[nonethewiser]

I just did the first one (`dune book review`) and the results were good. Like 12 relevant results, 5 shorts in one row (also relevant), followed by many more relevant results.

[carefree-bob]

It works pretty well for me, but my searches are mostly automotive youtube or some tech stuff.

So if I want to know how to replace the water pump on my car, I type in the make and model and "water pump" and I usually find what I am looking for fairly easily.

[rhdunn]

That search (e.g. `ford fiesta water pump`) is consistent for me as well, except for an "explore more" section in the middle of the results.

So it does seem to be specific searches where it gives up after the first 7-10 results (or decides to show you some more related results after 20-30 additional unrelated results).

I wonder if this is algorithmic. E.g. people searching for a specific "how to replace/fix ..." are not going to click on results from their recommended feed, so the algorithm could have learned to keep those results fixed. However, someone looking for a piece of entertainment (trailer, book review, etc.) may be more inclined to click on other unrelated content, so those searches are more inclined to show results from the user's recommended feed.

[stuffoverflow]

For me the problem is usually finding older videos. Youtube's search heavily favors newer videos to the point of completely hiding older ones even if using the exact video title. They've also removed the possibility of sorting results by date somewhere within last 6 months.