Likes from logged in views do count, the like to view ratio is higher due to that.
A German YouTuber tested it with an unlisted video, I can’t find it as of now but I do find a lot of deleted videos in my liked ones…
Basic theory as of the time of the video is that they want to go against bot views. Short views did not decline, only long form video, and of those the people with mostly desktop views are hit the most.
Edit: found it!
I don’t understand how anyone used YouTube anymore. I’m not going to spend 5 minutes solving a captcha every time I want to watch a 2 minute video.
I’ve literally never had to do that? And with uBlock Origin I don’t see ads at all.
That means they’re tracking you
OK. I’d already assumed they are.
just heads up if you’re getting captchas on YT you’ll probably start getting those on other Google services over time too.
it snowballs like this: YouTube decides you’re a bot => you use less YouTube => Google/Alphabet gets less information/fingerprints of you => Google Search decides you’re a bot => you switch to a different search engine => Google Maps decides you’re a robot …
I pay for it, because I’ve always watched a lot of it and I got used to “YouTube Premium” when it was called “YouTube Red” and came free with “Google Music” (now called “YouTube Music”).
adblocker
The experience on iOS using Safari+AdGuard+BakingSoda+Vinegar or simply the Orion browser is flawless. No ads, play videos with locked screen.