New YouTube Knows I Like Camels

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So it’s Saturday afternoon and I’m sitting in front of Ninja’s (Susan Shapiro) computer which is hooked up to our home theatre system, in pursuit of watching a few Tron Legacy trailers.  We had a Tron party last night.

I arrive on YouTube’s home page and quickly get distracted by a new STFURIANNE video. I notice the video ending, so I start preparing to type in ‘Tron Legacy Tr…’ when suddenly the page changes to a video of a sunset, in the Sahara. Too lazy and too slow (due to the extra-curricular activities of our party last night), I give the video a chance.  I hear some sitars, tablas, and what seems to be a mix between ancient Indian and Arabic melodies.

And then I see it. Camels.

I now realize that YouTube has updated their player to suggest videos. There’s a bar at the bottom that allows the user to turn on or off the ‘Recommended for you’ settings.

I find it funny that first ever recommended video I receive has camels in it. Google can’t know that much about me, can they? How could they possibly know I have an ever dying love for Camels? I wait for the video to end just so I can see what’s next.

“Holy crap!” I yell to Star (Lannie Le)as she’s in the other room. The new video is of a corky Japanese cutie whaling on some rock tunes. After that, a Bollywood music video. I would have typically ignored most of these videos. However, I must admit, I’m fully entertained at the moment. I really do like this recommended setting, I say to myself. And how the heck did YouTube dish out the perfect combination of Camels, Jap Girl and Bollywood? I don’t have anything related to that in my playlists. I swear.

Here’s the first few videos dished out to me by the new YouTube “Recommended for you” setting. Jeez, the YouTube algorithm has some interesting opinions about my tastes…

Karunesh – Sahara Sunset

Deerhoof – The Perfect Me

Shaan, Alka Yagnik – Don’t You Love Me Baby?

Read more about the new YouTube at Marketing Mag