Ask HN: Does Google use Gmail content to influence YouTube recommendations?

8 pointsjeremyleach5y ago2 comments

I'm working on a new version of my webapp, Muzoti.

I'd just finished sending an email in Gmail to a friend saying how I needed to allow users to choose the key and mode of the scale for their generated piece. The exact text was:

"Sure. I think a popup dialog screen should go there that allows you to choose scale, mode, track length etc."

Literally 5 minutes later I switched to YouTube and the first recommended video was one by Guy Mitchelmore teaching how different modes work in scales. Specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agln4_z8D8I

I thought that was an incredible coincidence as I don't remember seeing any of his videos before.

Later on though I started to wonder if Google was actually using my email content to decide what to show me in Youtube! Which, to me, feels completely sinister, even if solely algorithmic..

Does anyone know if they do this?

2 comments

highhedgehog5y ago

I don't know but I think this is no coincidence. Youtube has been part of Google long enough that I presume they have integrated them.

easytiger5y ago

As an aside, is there a way to access all the data related to advertising from google?

I don't see anything about it in google takeout.

In facebook you can retrieve such data quite easily and see what facebook api users have reported back to facebook about you on.

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