When I watch a product review on YouTube, and I hear that the link is in the description, I dislike the video and go back to the search results. Then, I click on the "don't recommend channel" button.
If the video producer benefits from someone purchasing the product, the review can't be objective whatsoever. Hence, I don't want to hear the YouTuber's honest opinion. On YouTube, I want to find regular people trying a product. Nowadays, it feels almost impossible to do so. It's like navigating in between a bunch of sellers. It's weird to see some travel vloggers talking about VPN services or selling you things unrelated to the channel. I wonder why they value their trust for a couple of thousand dollars. I can somehow understand it if the channel is small, and the creator is struggling to survive. But there are channels with millions of views that do the same. Why?
Not only on YouTube, but it's also disappointing to search something on Google and to find that the first results are the same SEO-optimised crap. You need to scroll half of the page—swallowing several AdSense banners—to find an answer that should be provided in the first paragraph. Again, I try to penalise the webpage going back to the search results. However, I wonder if Google counts this behaviour as a dislike. Maybe they should create a "don't recommend webpage" button.
Hi, I'm Erik, an engineer from Barcelona. If you like the post or have any comments, say hi.