Feeling like a consumer is a great way to put it. It especially feels more and more like it when trying to do even the most mundane tasks. Like if you own a product but need to ask a question on Google about it, first you have to scroll past the links to pages trying to sell you the product you typed in, then you might get some reddit links, 2-3 from a smaller forum, and then more links trying to sell you the product. It will say there's thousands of results, but it's just the same 6 links to purchase the product over and over again. So now even basic web searches are mainly for buying stuff.

Anywhere there is money there are charlatans

So the weird thing is you can still do this but only if YouTube thinks you're the right audience for it. My grandfather looks up all kinds of old things on YouTube and almost always get exactly what he wants on the first hit. However if I do it it ends up more like your example. Interesting and annoying at the same time

"Don't forget to hit the bell and smash that like and subscribe button!"

Yes but it is also way bigger then it was. The amount of data that YouTube has now is just insane. I wonder when they'll start culling old videos.

Yeah, that's completely untrue... The reason we can't just create a new youtube is the same reason there aren't more ISPs. The infrastructure cost is too high.

You can't just build a site that allows video uploads and playback, throw it on a Pi and release it to the world. You need scalability, and that costs money.

Maybe the end solution is a distributed system, but that's not something you can easily sell to the average Joe that doesn't give a shit about the "how" or "why" with Youtube, and simply wants to watch videos.

I'm not saying that Google isn't the scum of the earth, but there is currently no feasible way to recreate what they've made/bought without an absolutely stupid amount of money.

We can build a new youtube tomorrow

Unfortunately not. The cost would be astronomical. Youtube bled money like a stuck pig for a long time, and their monetization has turned out predictably awful, every time.

Don't get me wrong, the competition would be great, or at least having the option of something... less Youtube. There's a reason you don't see a lot of alternatives around, though, and certainly nothing at the same kind of scale.

I get your heart's in the right place. But good luck finding investors to pay for the massive infrastructure costs to back your YouTube alternative (read competitor) without a plan to extract money from someone. Not even to break even, but to turn a profit.

It would be nice if there was public money to create these alternatives - that was m way you wouldn't have to worry about profit, just whether your solution is meeting the public need.

That said I'm with you. I try to avoid YouTube whenever I can. Wish more people would do the same

I don't know how much it costs to run or how ads fully function on the service, but we do have Odysee. I have yet to have seen a single ad from my collection in the app outside of creators whose vid that's also up on yt having a sponsored segment.

Edit:

Just booted up the app for the first time in a while and they have some minor things. Noticed a little bar at the top with a list of channels and scrolled down to find a featured section.