About

What is this?

Escape The Algorithm is a simple experiment in serendipity. Instead of letting YouTube's recommendation algorithm decide what you should watch, we show you random videos uploaded near your location.

How does it work?

When you load the page, we find your approximate location based on your IP address. Then we search for the 10 most recent videos uploaded within 10 miles of that location and pick one at random to show you.

If there aren't enough videos nearby, we gradually expand the search radius up to 1000 miles. The goal is to help you discover content you might never have found otherwise—local events, neighborhood creators, small-town stories, and other hidden gems.

Why?

YouTube's algorithm is designed to maximize engagement, which often means showing you more of what you've already watched. This creates a filter bubble where you see an increasingly narrow slice of content.

By surfacing random, local videos, we hope to pop that bubble a little. You might find something weird, wonderful, or completely uninteresting—but at least it's not what the algorithm picked for you.

Privacy

Your approximate location is determined by your IP address on each visit. We don't store your location or track you across sessions. The only thing stored in your browser is a list of videos you've already seen, so we can show you something new each time.