YouTube is disabling its recommendation tools for some users.
The Google-owned video-sharing website currently offers its millions of users suggestions of content to watch based on their activity, but those who have turned off their Watch history altogether, will now be greeted with a blank page when they log on.
In a blog post, Google said: "New viewer experience that better corresponds to your YouTube watch history preferences.
"One of the benefits of having YouTube watch history on is that it enables YouTube to provide video recommendations you may be interested in; however, we know some prefer to clear and turn off your YouTube watch history. Starting today, we’re changing how you see recommendations on YouTube, based on your Watch History settings.
"Starting today, if you have YouTube watch history off and have no significant prior watch history, features that require watch history to provide video recommendations will be disabled – like your YouTube home feed. This means that starting today, your home feed may look a lot different: you’ll be able to see the search bar and the left-hand guide menu, with no feed of recommended videos thus allowing you to more easily search, browse subscribed channels and explore Topic tabs instead. (sic)"
The post went on to add that the changes will be "rolled out slowly", before reminding users that the choice of turning history on or off is completely up to them.
The post continued: "We’re rolling these changes out slowly, over the next few months. We are launching this new experience to make it more clear which YouTube features rely on watch history to provide video recommendations and make it more streamlined for those of you who prefer to search rather than browse recommendations. You can change your YouTube watch history settings at any time based on whether you prefer us to provide video recommendations or not.
"To turn history on or off, visit My Google Activity at myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols."
