If you are someone who has turned off their youtube watch history and removed all watch history data from your youtube account then chances are that you will see a blank homepage with a search bar instead of the default home recommendations.
This is part of a new update that Google has been rolling out. "This will enhance user experience.", Google says.
Since most recommendations rely on watch history to provide you with a personalised experience, with it turned off these recommendations have been mostly random videos or something based on your recent likes.
Many users had mixed opinions about these recommendations as they had to scroll through a lot of content before they would find something that they liked.
Now with this update, Google aims to fix this by completely disabling recommendations for users who have their watch history turned off. Now they will see a search bar as well as an alert box saying that their watch history has been turned off. You will also see that it prompts you to change your watch history setting by clicking the update history button.
This new rollout from Youtube has got a bunch of mixed reactions. Some say that this is a way for Youtube to force users to turn on their watch history while others seem to like the new feature stating that, "This was something we always wanted", and "Now no need to waste time scrolling through tons of content".
This update is also loved by people who like to search for new content rather than using recommendations.
Whatever user reactions might be, it is good to see that Youtube is always trying to increase user experience without disabling the functionality of the platform and this is why it will always be one of the most active social content platforms out there.