That's because you have history turned off. YouTube did this really weird thing where they refuse to give you algorithmic recommendations if you have history off, which includes refusing to let you watch more than a handful of shorts at a time.

As someone who has been addicted to the youtube feed for a long time, it was really refreshing to have a button that basically meant I could only watch videos I knew to search for.

I think they are trying really hard to pressure you into turning history back on, but I'm much happier as a person now that I'm not having videos and clickbait rammed down my throat.

▲

rpdillon 5 days ago | parent [-]

In a private window, there is no account to check for "History is turned off". I don't think the root comment is accurate: at least in the US, I see an empty page when I visit YT in a private window.

	▲	godshatter 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		That's what I see when I open YouTube for the first when I'm not logged in, too. I much, much, prefer this over their recommendation system. Although the first few sets of recommendations after your first few videos are actually useful.