I would rather not have to keep signing into and out of Youtube/Gmail or use separate browsers, but I absolutely don’t want to link the accounts. However Google seems to insist that if I’m logged into account A on Gmail then go to Youtube I still use account A unless I sign out and then sign into account B.
The most effective way to do this would be to run YouTube in a private/incognito window. But if you’re using Google Chrome, it’s quite possible that in the end Google will know that the two accounts belong to the same person. So I’d recommend avoiding Chrome entirely; use Firefox or Edge or Safari.
In my case, I do use separate browsers : Firefox for most browsing and YouTube, and Vivaldi for the rest of the Google stuff (GMail, Drive, etc.). That way I can still open a separate Firefox private/incognito window for other things as needed.
I have two Chrome shortcuts on my desktop, one for Account A and the other for Account B. And sometimes I view YouTube videos in an incognito window.
What do you mean by linking the accounts? Would that include having both accounts logged in at the same time, where Google knows this is the case? Because you can do that. It’s how my family handles things.
You can log in as user A, then choose “Switch User” and log in as user B. The URL for things under User B will be slightly different. The easiest way would be for YouTube to be User A, and for Gmail to be User B. Then you can just have bookmarks for each user.
Alternatively, you can choose to log in using different browsers and/or different profiles on each browser. That way you can keep each account more separate. That said, I’m not sure there’s that much difference, since both will be using the same IP address. If you really want to keep things completely separate, you’d probably need to invest in a VPN.
google and Youtube does understand multiple accounts. AT the top right, the photo/picture/avatar for your current account is showing, it has a menu that lets you change account. You might have to link the accounts so that a login to one is accepted as a login for the other.
But if you want it to make you login, you could disable cookies going to youtube.
In my experience, this does not work.
My girlfriend and I have separate Chrome accounts (You said Google, but I presume you’re referring to Chrome; we also have separate GMail accounts) and I routinely get recommended videos in my feed about marathon running, for example, which is something she watches videos about and not me.
This also happens with our “Guest” account and my personal YouTube account on our Roku. The device regularly “crosses the streams” and populates my recommendations based on the Guest account.
You’re right in that it should work that way, but it hasn’t been my experience.
Just to clarify: is “Switch User” a functionality of the browser (presumably Google Chrome), or are you talking about using Windows’ “Switch User” command to use a different Windows account entirely?
Well of course. I saw a thread where someone complained their spouse looked at something on Amazon, and they get recommendations and ads for it. You both use the same wifi/internet, so your browsing comes from the same IP address. Google, Amazon, and assorted ad trackers have therefore figured out you are sharing a household and probably calculate that maybe you will watch the same stuff. (and probably geolocates to know you are the same household, not a giant business) etc. etc.
My suggestion is to randomly pick some item or topic and search for it. They want to collect data, flood them with organic fertilizer. Search for a new random topic each week - sky diving, beanie babies, how to adjust Ford valve timing, AirBnB in Kuala Lumpur, tour boats to Capri, Australian oil slickers, recurve bows… Whatever is totally unconnected to whatever you care about.