Hello fellow, lemmings, lemmur !

If you are like me, you probably spend a lot of time on YouTube, more than you want to admit.

I remember the days when videos had stars instead of thumbs up or down, and when YouTube had, let’s say, more mature content on it.

Now the site has a lot of functionalitys that are great for Google, but that I don’t need nor want.

So, to improve the enjoyment of the platform, I present to you the ultimate extension survival kit for YouTube:

  1. uBlock Origin: (or your favorite ad-blocker) This is an absolute must-have. It’s a good ad-blocker that not only blocks YouTube ads but also works across all websites. It’s lightweight, efficient, and open-source. Say goodbye to ads.
  2. SponsorBlock: Skip over the sponsored segments of videos. It’s a community-driven project, with users submitting the timestamps of sponsored content. You can even customize it to skip over different types of segments like intros, outros, and more.
  3. Return YouTube Dislike: Since YouTube removed the dislike count, it’s been harder to gauge the quality of videos. This extension brings back the dislike count.
  4. DeArrow: Extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails. It removes click-bait titles and thumbnails providing a cleaner Youtube.
  5. YouTube Shorts Block: If you’re not a fan of shorts, this extension is for you. It plays the Youtube shorts video as if it were a normal video and hides the “shorts” tab from the left menu. Firefox Link Chrome Link
  6. Enhancer for YouTube: Allows you to add theming options, auto-HD, keyboard shortcuts and more.

These are the extensions I use. Don’t hesitate to suggest more. I will edit the post accordingly.

It’s not lost on me that these extensions remove many things that were not initially a problem on YouTube but that either arose because of the monetary incentive of Google handling the website, Youtubers trying to make money, or as countermeasures to problems that were taken care of by a previous extension. This kind of feels like an arms race…

Edit 1: Changed the YouTube Shorts Block description and added Enhancer for YouTube

    • sp6@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      That’s nice, although somewhat different than what OP linked. I think the filter you linked will completely remove shorts, where the extension OP linked (Youtube Shorts Block) will instead convert shorts into a normal video, despite the misleading name. Although I think the extension has an option to completely block shorts too

  • ultralight@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 years ago

    Probably not the crowd for this but I just use YouTube premium at this point. I used ublock previously to manage some of this but the kicker was ensuring I could watch YT seamlessly on all devices (TV - fire stick, ipad, ios). I know I can setup a pi hole but have been moving last couple years. Perhaps soon once I settle.

    • DiabolicalDucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 years ago

      Of all the streaming services we subscribe to, our family uses YT Premium the most by a large margin. In terms of hours watched/$ it’s easily the best value. And you get YT Music.

  • Teknikal@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    2 years ago

    It’s bearable on smartube next if you have an android TV, firestick or similar

    My biggest problem with YouTube is they keep giving me videos I’ve already watched and it seems they wipe them from the watch list very quickly to try and trick you into clicking it again.

    I also hate the fact that if I say I’m not interested In something they take no notice and send it to my recommendations again regardless.

    • QubaXR@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 years ago

      I suspect YouTube’s blacklist (do not recommend this channel / video) is length-limited. I recently noticed some of the oldest content I banned coming back in recommendations.

      Feels like as I add more bans, the oldest ones get released. Really frustrating.

    • protput@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      I love smartube next on my TV more then Youtube revanced on my phone. They should make a smartphone version! (I’m looking for an app where you can login, so not newpipe)

    • ext23@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 years ago

      if I say I’m not interested In something they take no notice and send it to my recommendations again regardless.

      omg yes fuck this. I constantly get fed entire categories of videos on games which I actively hate; I have never watched a single video for any of them and have said “not interested” to probably 50+ videos, but they still pop up every day.

  • Stealth_Bummer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 years ago

    Youtube search fix: This is not a extension but if you save this as a bookmark javascript:location.href=location.href+‘&sp=CAASAhAB’; in your browser it can be used to remove youtubes recommended / “people also watched” videos from a search.

    To use it, search for something on youtube and then click the bookmark you have made and it will then reload the search page and only show listings for what you searched for and remove youtubes recommended / “people also watched" videos from the search.

    • Crul@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      2 years ago

      javascript:location.href=location.href+‘&sp=CAASAhAB’;

      In firefox, you can also add a keyword to this shortcut (e.g.: yt):

      https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&sp=CAASAhAB

      Then you can use it from the search bar like yt testing and it will redirect you to this URL (replacing %s with testing):

      https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=testing&sp=CAASAhAB

      EDIT: and a fancier option is to use Redirector, Request Control (or similar) to create a redirection from YT searches without the CAASAhAB query param to the one with it.

  • Zeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 years ago

    If you use a script manager (Tampermonkey, Violentmonkey, Greasemonkey, Firemonkey) I can recommend some userscripts:

    1. Tabview for Youtube - condenses comments, description, playlists and chat into a neatly organised sidebar,
    2. YT Resource Unholder - improves how YT handles resources and improves performance,
    3. YT CPU Tamer - more performance improvements,
    4. YT AV1 - forces YT to use AV1 for all videos.
  • Lord_Boffum@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 years ago

    Perhaps it bears mentioning that DeArrow is developed by the same person as SponsorBlock. That gave me a lot of faith in it right off the bat.

  • Ab_intra@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    2 years ago

    Or you could just subscribe to YouTube Premium (same price as Spotify) and get YouTube Music with it… Also it seems like Google is planning on having a three strike policy on ad blocking.

    • oct_opus@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      I feel like there was an unwritten agreement between extension developers and Google/Youtube. Youtube allowed ad-blocking for those who wanted it, and in exchange, ad-blockers didn’t hide that users were blocking ads. By doing this, Youtube would break this agreement. I think there will always be a way around it, but currently, as it’s still working, no alternative that I know of has been developed.

      • Ab_intra@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 years ago

        Don’t think that’s really the case tbh. YouTube has allowed this for some time, yes, but they have been blocking this also from time to time. There was a reason why i started to use Unblock Origin in the first place because Adblock plus i think it was stopped working.

        But a year or two ago I tried YouTube Premium for free for a month and ended up canceling Spotify and only using this now. The fact of the matter is that Google is losing loads of cash because people are blocking the ads.

        I’m not pointing fingers to anyone here, I myself have used ad blocking for years, but when the price was right I jumped ship from Spotify and became a premium subscriber at YouTube.

        • ZodiacSF1969@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          I’m tempted, but I’ve been using Spotify so long it’s hard to make a change. I should look into it again though.

          It sucks you got downvoted so much. It’s a legitimate point, and it’s unsustainable for YouTube to keep hosting so much content if people aren’t subscribing and aren’t viewing ads.

          • Ab_intra@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 years ago

            Thanks for a constructive comment! I would say go for it. You can import playlists. I don’t think there is a native way but it might be by now.

            I actually think the mixes that Youtube Music makes for you are much better than what Spotify gives you. But then again Google has loads of more data points on us.

            You can get a free month I think that’s how I got into it.

            • ZodiacSF1969@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              2 years ago

              Cheers, I might give it a go next time they offer me the free trial. I’m definitely not adverse to paying for ad-free access 😊

              • Ab_intra@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                2 years ago

                It’s worth it IMO. You get it for the same price that you pay for Spotify and get ad free Youtube + music. IMO that’s bigger value.

                Hope you enjoy it if you end up trying it out.

    • skye@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      is it possible for multiple people to use one youtube premium subscription other than the family plan? we checked the family plan but there’s no way we can justify paying for it, far too expensive for us considering all our other expenses

      • Ab_intra@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 years ago

        I’m not sure tbh. One thing you could do is have one use it online while the other person using it offline.

        But i get that it might be to expensive for a family plan.

      • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
        5·
        2 years ago

        Because things can’t always be free. It’d be nice if we lived in a utopic society where data storage and energy were unlimited, but we don’t. YT Premium has been the best value of a sub I’ve ever spent money on.

      • Ab_intra@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 years ago

        Thanks for the personal attack.

        Also as I’ve stated above this is something that Google is working to block. Soon you will have to watch ad or not be able to use YouTube at all.