Top Extensions to Make YouTube Bearable

oct_opus@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1463 points –

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

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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.

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.

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 😊

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.