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Discovery is probably the only reason why I still use YouTube. If somebody could make something that provides a non-Google recommendation system with tools to categorize/organize the videos I've watched/want to watch, that'd be great. Assuming the UI is at least on par with Google's, I'd switch in a heartbeat. Not that their UI is particularly good, but the alternatives I've seen (like PeerTube) are frustrating to use on a basic moment-to-moment level.

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The tricky part is getting enough adoption for network effects to make it generally useful. So you need it to be useful to individual users before it has lots of users. Sort of like how Goodreads is useful for keeping track of books you've read/want to read, even if you never read the reviews or look at the lists that are a result of network effects.

The question is what features of a video aggregator would be useful to the individual? Watched list? Playlist management? URL shortening for sharing videos? Better UI? Export list to youtube-dl?

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