Why YSK: Youtube’s enshittification creates an abysmal experience. There’s a list of Chrome extensions I’ve collected over the years that each fix an aspect of Youtube to bring back a genuine experience. I’ve seen in comments people mention one or two of these at a time, so this is a pack that contains everything you could need, and more.

Sample:

Essential Plugins:

  • Ghostery: Blocks trackers and ads
  • uBlock Origin: Blocks In-video ads
  • SponsorBlock: Skips in-video sponsor segments
  • Return Youtube Dislike: Returns the dislike button
  • DeArrow: Better titles and thumbnails, removes clickbait
  • Youtube Redux: Returns youtube to the older style
  • Style Bot: This tool allows you to edit CSS. With a bit of setup, you can use it to block sponsored videos from appearing in our video suggestions:
  1. Open Stylebot options
  2. Styles > New Style

URL: Youtube.com

CSS (copy and paste):

ytd-ad-slot-renderer,
ytd-rich-item-renderer:has(
  > #content
    > ytd-ad-slot-renderer
){
  display: none;
}
  1. Save Style and Refresh Youtube

Optional:

    • invertedspear@lemm.ee
      21·
      1 day ago

      Just don’t look?

      Annoying that they clog the search results I guess, but they are a great way for creators to drive engagement with their long form content. Sports has guided me to some really interesting content I wouldn’t have found otherwise.

  • REDACTED@infosec.pubEnglish
    6·
    1 day ago

    This post is a bit of a mess. It links to images hosted on discord, meaning it’s a temporary link that has already expired and post links only to chrome addon store

  • Zacryon@feddit.org
    201·
    2 days ago

    There’s a list of Chrome extensions

    If you don’t want to have an enshittified internet, it would be reasonable to not use and thereby support software by a company which actively works on enshittifying virtually everything it touches.

    In other words: stop using Google / Alphabet products.

  • emb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    Thanks for the list! I use a handful of these (in Firefox), but wasn’t aware of all of them. Youtube Redux especially seems cool.

  • Frellwit@lemmy.world
    101·
    3 days ago

    If you use uBO then Ghostery is redundant. It can also cause some of uBO’s filters to not work correctly.

    Also uBO can do what you did with stylebot. (If you use the full uBO extension, and not the limited Lite version for Chromium browsers):

    youtube.com##ytd-ad-slot-renderer
youtube.com##ytd-rich-item-renderer:has(ytd-ad-slot-renderer)
    • Oka@sopuli.xyzOP
      318·
      3 days ago

      I don’t think uBO removes trackers. I originally wanted to do the filter with uBO ) I have a filter for promoted LinkedIn jobs) but found a reddit thread that used Style Bot with instructions

      • Froggie 🐸@lemmy.zip
        671·
        3 days ago

        Not only is Ghostery redundant when you use uBlock Origin (you can choose the tracking removal lists, like EasyPrivacy, for example), Ghostery has a conflict of interests as it works with the ads industry at the same time it has this tool, and it reports the ads and tracking it finds back to advertisers, who can then make them bypass that detection better.

        If you insist in a separate add-on, Privacy Badger does the same blocking of trackers and it is maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit for digital privacy.

      • Frellwit@lemmy.world
        25·
        3 days ago

        uBO do remove trackers with the EasyPrivacy and uBlock filters – Privacy filters. More filters and options can also be enabled if you know what you’re doing. For beginners it’s best to stick to the default settings as more additions can lead to more breakage.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      17·
      3 days ago

      This. Youtube is dead to me.

      Sounds like OP actually interacts on the site with comments and likes and whatever so I can’t account for that.

      In my case I get by with a combination of freetube and tubearchivist. I expect that one day youtube will find a way to finally close the door on this type of freeloading. Hopefully that will provide the incentive for more people to use more platforms.

      • grue@lemmy.world
        82·
        3 days ago

        I like interacting with actual YouTube because it keeps track of my subscriptions and watch history across my devices. (It’s not that I want Google to know my habits; it’s that I don’t want videos I already watched coming up in my feed.)

        If one of these YouTube alternative front ends would solve for that use-case without too much faff and hassle, I’d happily switch.

        • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          You can usually export & import your subscriptions and bookmarks.

          Mileage varies between different apps.

          Many would call that faff and hassle. I’m not that attached to my subscriptions.

          • grue@lemmy.world
            71·
            3 days ago

            I need you to understand that manually exporting and importing subscriptions isn’t even slightly like automatically synchronizing watch history (including non-subscribed channels).

            • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              86·
              3 days ago

              Sure. This functionality just isn’t important to me.

              Also maybe just be aware that starting sentences with “I need you to understand” makes you sound like a bit of an ass.

  • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
    31·
    2 days ago

    Ok I think I read all the comments sufficiently and I still don’t see the feature I most want: sort by duration.

    Dinner is in 20 minutes. Click time range, set for 15-20 minutes. Look through suggestions from subscriptions that are 15-20min long. Pick one. Enjoy video knowing when it ends you’ll be able to go eat dinner/go to bed/leave for work.

  • kepix@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 days ago

    im pretty sure ublock blocks trackers, and does it in a more open way.

    “enhancer for youtube” is also great, i like how it only allows one video playback at once. has some visual customisation options as well.

    the other is “youtube search fixer” , which disables the related and recommend crap from the search.

    • gurnu@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Clarification: you can set YT Enhancer to only allow one video to play, but you can enable multiple playback, too

      YouTube search fixer sounds like something I need, I hate that only the first ten or so search results are actually relevant

  • vaguerant@fedia.io
    15·
    3 days ago

    This one’s not strictly enshittification-related, but I find YouTube Comment Search (Firefox, Chrome) extremely useful. YouTube videos frequently have way more comments than any sensible person is going to read through. By searching for keywords, you can check whether somebody else already said what you were thinking and 👍 that instead of posting another duplicate comment that will get buried forever.

  • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    10·
    3 days ago

    Biggest YouTube feature i miss was putting channels into folders so you could put all of your diy channels into one feed. I’ve not seen that replicated anywhere yet

    • emb@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Yes, seems like such an odd oversight from Google. They want you to subscribe to channels, but after even moderate use over a few years, you end up with a massive list of subscriptions. I guess it’s not actually an oversight, the bad UX (for finding specific content) is probably on purpose, they want to funnel you through their suggestions. But still, surprised they don’t include a way to organize it.

      I use an extension called PocketTube to organize them – but it stores data locally and doesn’t sync very well, so it wouldn’t fit your use case.

      • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        They removed it so they could make standard users reliant on the recommended feed so they’re more likely to watch high earning ad-backed videos.

        But I’m stuck of how short sighted their recommended algorithm is, it only takes into account the very recent videos you’ve watched so over time you get out of touch of old subscriptions unless they somehow go viral again or you search them up explicitly.

    • Cait@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      3·
      2 days ago

      Grayjay has subscription groups, which would be what you’re describing. Grayjay desktop is currently in alpha tho

      • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        That doesn’t let you log in with a Google account though does it? YouTube is my primary source of entertainment and I mostly watch it on tv nowadays and across other devices, I can’t go with an option with a “local” account.

  • MrSilkworm@lemmy.ml
    71·
    2 days ago

    uBlock origin, Sponsor block, dark reader and return YouTube dislike will do the trick.

    Use those on a privacy orientented browser like librewolf on desktop or fennec on android.

    Also setting a private DNS would be helpfull. Adguard is a good one.

    Lastly there is always the choice of Revanved if you’re a little tech savvy and use Android

  • fatcat@discuss.tchncs.de
    7·
    3 days ago

    Is there ANY way to turn of the auto dubbing of Youtube Shorts? I tried “Youtube Anti Translate” but it doesn’t work.