Can we talk about how YouTube keeps feeding me the same news video from 3 months ago?

I noticed last night that my recommended feed had a story about local housing costs that I already watched back in April, and when I clicked on it, the date was from March 12th. Why does the algorithm think old news is what I need to see today, and has anyone else caught their feed recycling stale content like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

piper7791mo ago

Three months back I clicked on what looked like a new video about a downtown construction project, and the upload date was from last November. @kim.jake you're right that sometimes the thumbnails get swapped out, but in my case the title and channel had basically stayed the same, it was just sitting in my feed like leftovers from March. Did you ever notice if these old recommendations disappear faster when you tell YouTube "not interested" or do they just pop back up a week later anyway?

kim.jake1mo ago

a story about local housing costs that I already watched back in April" - that's the exact kind of thing that gets me too. But here's what I'm wondering about your situation: did the video say it was from March when you clicked on it, or did the algorithm just recommend it like it was fresh news? Because I've noticed a difference between YouTube reshuffling old content and them actually labeling it wrong. For me, sometimes the date shows as months ago but the video title and thumbnail get changed to look current, which feels almost like they're tricking me. Have you checked if the actual video info changed or if it was just the recommended thumbnail that looked new?

sage_green1mo ago

Hold up wait wait wait. You're telling me they actually change the title and thumbnail on an old video to make it look new? I thought it was just YouTube being lazy and reshuffling stuff I've already seen. That's a whole different level of shady if they're literally updating the packaging on a six month old video to trick people into clicking again. That feels almost like bait and switch behavior honestly. I'm gonna have to start checking the upload dates more carefully now because I bet I've fallen for that before and just never noticed.