Our Recommendation Systems

Our Recommendation Systems

How We Recommend Content to You

Our platform uses recommendation systems to help you discover videos and content that might interest you. We want to be transparent about how these systems work and give you control over your viewing experience.

Main Parameters We Use for Recommendations

Our recommendation algorithms consider several key factors to suggest content:

Your Viewing History: We analyze the videos you’ve watched, how long you watched them, and which videos you watched completely versus those you stopped watching early. This helps us understand your content preferences and interests.

Your Interactions: We consider your engagement with content including videos you’ve liked, shared, commented on, or added to playlists. We also note content you’ve indicated you’re not interested in or have reported.

Your Profile Information: If you’ve provided information about your interests, age, or language preferences in your profile settings, we use this to better match content to your stated preferences.

Content Popularity and Trends: We factor in how popular certain videos are with users who have similar viewing patterns to you, as well as trending content in your region or language.

Content Categories and Topics: We analyze the types of content you typically watch (such as music, gaming, education, or entertainment) and suggest similar content categories.

Viewing Context: We consider factors like the time of day you typically watch certain types of content and the device you’re using to access our platform.

How You Can Control Your Recommendations

You have several options to influence and modify your recommendation experience:

Manage Your Viewing History:

  • You can view, pause, or clear your watch history at any time through your account settings
  • Clearing your history will reset your recommendations and start fresh
  • Pausing your history prevents new views from affecting future recommendations

Use Feedback Controls:

  • Click “Not Interested” on videos you don’t want to see to remove similar content from future recommendations
  • Use the “Don’t Recommend Channel” option to stop seeing content from specific creators
  • Like or dislike videos to help refine what we suggest to you

Update Your Profile Preferences:

  • Review and update your stated interests and preferences in your account settings
  • Adjust your language and region settings to influence the geographic and linguistic focus of recommendations
  • Update your age information to ensure age-appropriate content suggestions

Manage Your Interactions:

  • Your subscriptions heavily influence recommendations - subscribe to channels you enjoy and unsubscribe from those you no longer want to see
  • Engage with content you enjoy through comments and likes to signal your preferences
  • Create and manage playlists to indicate your content interests

Use Specialized Controls:

  • Enable or disable specific recommendation features in your privacy settings
  • Choose whether to receive recommendations based on your activity on other Google services (if applicable)
  • Set viewing restrictions or content filters for yourself or family members

Privacy and Data Use

Your recommendation preferences and the data used to generate them are governed by our Privacy Policy. You can learn more about how we collect, use, and protect your information in our comprehensive Privacy Policy available on our website.

If you have questions about our recommendation systems or need help managing your preferences, please visit our Help Center or contact our support team.

This information is provided in compliance with the EU Digital Services Act Article 27 requirements for transparency in recommender systems.