Youtube is now unusable without a frontend

I have an extension that can individually disable all the most useless/addicting components of the Youtube site, such as shorts and whatnot. On the search page, I have turned on:

hide Shorts

hide For You

hide Trending

hide ‘People Also Searched For’

hide Search Categories

hide Promoted Videos

hide Promoted Websites

hide Suggested Products

Do you know what Youtube has started doing? They are now inserting engagement slop DIRECTLY into the search results, as seen in the image above. It’s literally a short, yet it’s inserted like a video so you’re forced to see it. The only possible way to remove it is by using a privacy frontend, as even on incognito mode, Youtube will look at the three videos you’ve watched and start inserting shit based off that.

Louis Rossman is right, they all have rapist mentalities… “just let me stick it in”

retrolasered,
@retrolasered@lemmy.zip avatar

Try piped. Your feed is only what you subscribe to and theres a toggle to hide shorts

Chiro,

Is there a YouTube client for iOS? I know, iPhone bad etc, but it’s what I’ve got for now. 95% of the time I’m watching YouTube it’s not on my pc. There’s a Vanced in the App Store but I don’t trust it, especially since Vanced was shut down about 2 years ago if I’m not mistaken…

toni_bmw,
@toni_bmw@lemmy.world avatar

Or NewPipe

Murdoc,

Or Tubular

Cistello,

Stuck in local

T4V0,
@T4V0@lemmy.world avatar

Or PipePipe (at the time it was basically Newpipe with comments to me)

Sir_Kevin,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Or FreeTube

toastal,

The SponsorBlock integration is a major difference from NewPipe

darthelmet,

I’ve tried looking into that but I couldn’t get it working. It didn’t add any subscriptions to my feed. Going to the site now I don’t even seem to be able to click on anything. I just tried disabling my ad blocker and now I can click on stuff, but none of it won’t load any videos. Any idea what’s up with it? I’d love to be able to switch off YT if I can.

Scolding0513,

I used Piped for a while, but it’s always broken half the time or incredibly slow, it was giving me an aneurism. Freetube and never looked back

BlueKey,
@BlueKey@kbin.run avatar

Which instance are you on.
I use piped.adminforge.de with uBlock and it works fine.
Also the feed shows stuff from my subscriptions (I think I adjusted something in the settings for that).

DreadPotato,
@DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz avatar

Piped isn’t working for me either anymore. I was using piped.adminforge.de before, but I’ve tried other instances too without any luck. It won’t load play any videos at all. I can search and find stuff without issues, but I can’t play anything.

BlueKey,
@BlueKey@kbin.run avatar

Have you tried to enable only one codec and set the default quality to something like 720p in the preferences?

retrolasered,
@retrolasered@lemmy.zip avatar

Depends on the instance, it might be down or having work done on it, and also I think there might be some ongoing war with youtube api to keep everything working but im not sure. I just signed up on the kavin rocks one, every couple of days it will be down for a bit but it comes back up.

BradleyUffner,

Is it possible to turn recommendations on? I’m fine with those, but I never want to see shorts again.

retrolasered,
@retrolasered@lemmy.zip avatar

No I dont think so. Theres a trending page on a feed page

Rez,
@Rez@sh.itjust.works avatar

Youtube search results have been garbage for a while now :(

Sir_Kevin,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Youtube Google search results have been garbage for a while now :(

Scubus,

Youtube Google search results have been garbage for a while now :(

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

I’ve noticed that the search results are getting less and less relevant to what I’m actually looking for. I guess one day the search bar will disappear like the headphone jack of the iPhone.

velox_vulnus,

You don’t need search, all you need is watch. Watch the video, follow the directive of the techo-judgement day Jesus AI, beep-boop.

Million,

It’s the future, year 2025…

Just unplugged from work when I feel a buzz in my forehead and my neuralink pushes new order details straigt into my retinas.

It’s another deep dive job. Without hesitation I accept the job since I’m low on prime points. Head back to my office and plug myself back in. Get more details from the job file, seems to be some obscure shit again…

Turn on my cooled chair that prevents my body from overheating during a deep dive. I sit in the chair and start the process.

Thousands and thousands of mind numbing click bait videos speed past me as I weave through them in the metaverse. I’m multiple hours into the dive with no results, and I can feel my body start failing. I should pull out, but the prime points are too tempting, and I’m already so deep, it has to be around here somewhere.

My vision flashes red as my neuralinked dive chair is giving me warnings about my body failing, and just as im about to pass out… There it is, I gotcha… Grab the link and pull out as fast as I can.

Wake up a few hours later after my chair managed to get my heart going again. Scramble through my memories for the link, and there it was. I inform the customer that the matching video has been found and I am awaiting payment… The money is wired to me instantly and I sent them the LINK through neuramail.

Searching YouTube isn’t easy these days… But it pays good…

kinship,

That was some William Gibson shit

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

LOL, brilliant adaptation!

Scolding0513,

that was amazing

Lev_Astov,
@Lev_Astov@lemmy.world avatar

They’re so brave.

index,

they are screwing it on purpose to make room for their AI

robber,

That sounds familiar. Remember when we used to watch TV?

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Oh that thing where in between the ads you can watch low quality reality shows for a few minutes? Yeah, those were the days…

BigBananaDealer,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

tried watching a stone cold steve austin show once and had to stop because literally every 4 minutes there were ads. unwatchable

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

And then there are the recaps you get every now and then. People making these shows know that most viewers aren’t even really actively watching. It’s just background noise you put on while cooking or doing household chores. When you go to a movie, there are no recap, because the director expects to have your undivided attention at all times.

Nisaea,
@Nisaea@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

4 mins? Is that an hyperbole? Oo

BigBananaDealer,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

not sure but it felt like it

Nisaea,
@Nisaea@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Goodness gracious ._.

x3x3,

Their incompetence opens room for other platforms

miss_brainfarts,

Oh, we’ve been through this though. Which other platform will ever have the cash to be a real contender here?

xnx,

Twitch could. Still wild they don’t allow editing vods or uploading videos.

Chozo,

Dan Clancy has already said that Twitch isn't profitable as it is. Right now, they basically only still exist because of existing contracts, otherwise Amazon would've likely pulled the plug a while ago. They can't handle their current user base; they wouldn't be able to handle YouTube refugees en masse.

xnx,

They currently allow unlimited vods that are hours long that provides zero revenue. They could disable that and instead allow 30 minutes of edited vods or video uploads and have ads on them to make money

Chozo, (edited )

Yeah that's true, and I'm honestly surprised that they've had features like that available for free for as long as they have.

I kind of wonder why they haven't attempted such a pivot already, though, as it seems like they could easily take over the gaming video space that YouTube currently dominates. Much of that audience uses Twitch already and would easily transition over to a more curated platform, so it feels like it should've been a pretty obvious move by now.

oo1,

Things like freetube seems to be basically a simple yt front-end.

I don't know what happens if a significant amount of yt users used freetube. but that probably won't happen.

I find it a lot more pleasant to use than yt.

Rocketpoweredgorilla,
@Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca avatar

I use freetube as well, but I have a feeling that it’s just a matter of time before google brings the axe down on it too, especially if it increases in popularity.

anothermember,

Well FreeTube never claimed to be a platform, it’s a fantastic front-end for browsing YouTube videos without having to deal with Google’s crap, but you’re still using YouTube.

Takios,
@Takios@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I don’t know what happens if a significant amount of yt users used freetube. but that probably won’t happen.

Look at what happened with Nitter (alternative Twitter frontend). They’ll start changing around things so often that alternative frontends break every few days.

sukhmel,

DouYin, you know, the Chinese YouTube

That’s sarcasm though, as I expect them to be as malicious as YouTube

vorpuni,
@vorpuni@jlai.lu avatar

PeerTube isn’t too bad if you’re willing to host your own videos as a big creator, and smaller creators can pool resources for smaller instances.

EngineerGaming,
@EngineerGaming@feddit.nl avatar

My main issue with Peertube is that for some reason, after just a bit of its use the internet connection on my laptop just shuts down until a reboot. It was present on both old and new laptop, and while the same thing happens when I torrent sometimes - only Peertube does it consistently. Would really like if there is a fix for this.

But yea, I agree in that the answer is not a platform, but a selfhostable solution.

domi,
@domi@lemmy.secnd.me avatar

Video hosting is a money sink, I wouldn’t hold my breath that somebody else comes along.

Hazzia,

I just want to point out that DailyMotion and Vimeo still (somehow) exist.

I haven’t really looked into them because they obviously my subscriptions wouldn’t be there which is pretty much all I use youtube for, but they are technically competitors that do technically exist.

krolden,
@krolden@lemmy.ml avatar

Vimeo charges users money to upload videos

Omega_Haxors,

The free market has always resulted in the best outcomes for the people!!

mvilain,
@mvilain@fedia.io avatar

I disabled History and only see my channel subscriptions. None of the options above appear in my Youtube feed.

kylian0087,

Yeah i did this until they make the entire homepage blank if you keep history off. Very annoying.

100,

but why would your homepage not be your sub box

sukhmel,

Maybe they don’t subscribe

parpol,

Hey, I don’t even have an account. My firefox bookmarks are my feed.

onion,

May I suggest NewPipe (Android) or FreeTube (Desktop)

FIST_FILLET,

i had history disabled for a while until i realized that it then forgets your progress in longer videos… deal-breaker for me

chonglibloodsport,

I’m really surprised at how bad of an experience people are having! I have a bunch of channels I follow and people I interact with. Some big channels but most small. I love channels with only a few hundred to a few thousand viewers. The creators post their videos and then I talk to them through the comments. We have some really interesting conversations.

Lots of other channels I follow I don’t interact with but still really enjoy. A lot of hobby channels are amazing! I generally avoid the news and politics stuff, though I still occasionally watch Ukraine videos or Trump trial stuff. I get sick of those after one video though!

Firipu,
@Firipu@startrek.website avatar

Yeah, tbh, the insane focus on privacy makes YouTube a lot worse, no shit. The algorithm just throws shit at the wall hoping it sticks, what do you expect?

Make a burner account only for YouTube. See how the quality goes up because you can follow people you are actually interested in.

I personally really don’t see the privacy risk with that? (then again, I gave up on the idea of true privacy online years ago. Privacy through obscurity is enough. I don’t care big companies recognize my habits, as long as they don’t know 100% exactly who I am.)

onion,

You can subscribe without an account using third party clients like NewPipe or FreeTube

krolden,
@krolden@lemmy.ml avatar

But you dont get the algorithmic recommendations.

chonglibloodsport,

You can subscribe but you can’t comment without an account. I know YouTube has a terrible reputation for the low quality of comments but that’s exclusively a large channel problem. Small, niche channels actually have decent discussions.

EngineerGaming,
@EngineerGaming@feddit.nl avatar

Even viewing comments has been broken on Newpipe and frontends for a while.

kionite231,

Use pipepipe. You can view comments there.

ModernRisk,
@ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

May I ask the name(s) of these extension(s)? Currently having this issue and that’s why I mainly use MPV to load my music playlist on.

DanTDM,

Untrap for Youtube

The same dev also makes an extension that lets you block individual elements for facebook, instagram, leddit, etc. Useful to break a habit

Sir_Kevin,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Ya’ll need FreeTube.

letsgo,

Yal’l n’eed t’o lear’n a’bou’t apo’str’phe pl’ac’em’en’t’.

Hamartiogonic,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Rookie numbers! Needs more apostrophes.

ma1w4re,

Ya will need freetube

BaumGeist,

Damn… That’s a good username. Wish I had thought of it

Sunny,

you can have it too, considering you’re on separate instances :P

BaumGeist,

Nah, I don’t feel like starting a new account, nor adding to the unnecessary confusion of multiple users with the same name. I’m kinda happy I’m the only one of me rn

CliveRosfield,

This boy ain’t right

rwhitisissle,

It’s “y’all” - as in a contraction of “you all.”

TheControlled,

Cool music taste.

buzz86us,

The damn site tries to crash my browser before showing me what I want

Zier,
@Zier@fedia.io avatar

Firefox, uBlock Origin, on a Linux Desktop. I have none of these problems and have filters to hide shorts, endcards, autoplay, ambient mode. And I block all cookies from Youtube/Google.
Works perfectly.

Norule6,

I’m working towards a Linux distro instead of windows. Until I get there it’s Firefox, unblock on a desktop with mullvad VPN. Set the vpn location to Albania for no ads.

Zier,
@Zier@fedia.io avatar

Kubuntu is very friendly, it's my daily. Try Mint if you want easier.

Hazzia,

Add on the PokeTube skin from userstyles.org and you can pretend you live in a world that’s free and balanced where children can kick the asses of wannabe capitalistic overlords instead of the corporate hellscape we currently find ourselves in.

Zier,
@Zier@fedia.io avatar

just an fyi it's userstyles.world now. The .org is dead.

7heo, (edited )
@7heo@lemmy.ml avatar

This is the way. And I might add, Unix desktop. Let’s not start bikeshedding between FOSS Unix distributions out of dogmatic reasons (I’m sure you didn’t mean to specifically single out “Linux” here, but I wish we would stop opposing “Linux” and other Unixes like BSD, Illumos, etc).

The point is, voting with your data for software that is defending your interests, and respecting your rights.

Edit: Dang, I didn’t expect to get so much slack for “Unix as opposed to Unix-Like”. I absolutely meant “Unix-Like”, but my point is that it shouldn’t matter. Most software is trying to be compatible, these days, and Linux isn’t (in spite of all that marketing material) an OS. It is a kernel. So semantics for semantics, can it even be compared to something it is not? I merely tried to be inclusive.

folkrav,

It’s not so much opposition rather than other BSDs having almost negligible desktop presence… If we really want to get into semantics, too, Linux is technically not UNIX.

octopus_ink,

This is a weird response to me.

This is the way. And I might add, Unix desktop.

Sure man, rock on. ✊

Let’s not start bikeshedding between FOSS Unix distributions out of dogmatic reasons (I’m sure you didn’t mean to specifically single out “Linux” here

Eh… OP seems to be talking about their own setup. They probably “singled out” Linux because it’s what they use.

I wish we would stop opposing “Linux” and other Unixes like BSD, Illumos, etc).

I oppose none of those things, but Linux isn’t Unix.

(Usually the Unix folks are the ones at pains to point that out.)

SnipingNinja,

1 minute videos aren’t put into the shorts interface, so it’s not YouTube noticing that you disabled shorts but rather some YouTuber trying to follow the algorithm using a channel they made for shorts and mistakenly (I assume) uploading a video longer than minute on it. All such videos appear as normal videos instead of as shorts.

Google is terrible though, so I understand why you would think that.

Matriks404,

My three biggest problems with YouTube are:

  • It sucks on desktops/laptops with bigger UI scaling enabled, some stuff just doesn’t fit.

  • The search function on YouTube is useless and completely broken. Instead of searching normally it:

    1. Repeats same results multiple times;
    2. Display unrelated Shorts nobody asked for;
    3. Instead of displaying relevant results it shows stuff you have already watched or picked by YouTube algorithm.

  • You can’t skip sponsored segments with YouTube Premium. You need SponsorBlock browser extension for that.

AFC1886VCC,

I wouldn’t dream of paying for premium unless they added an official version of sponsorblock across desktop and mobile. The fact that you can get more out of YouTube with a free client is laughable.

You’re pretty much just throwing away money if you pay for premium.

MashedTech,

I use YouTube with …google.com/…/bojdknokkpgboeonegndfcgkaommhleo

photonic_sorcerer,
@photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

You’re using Chrome in 2024 while also browsing Lemmy? Dear God, man. I wish I had your determination and\or powers of ignorance.

MashedTech,

I use what works best for me. I use Lemmy because it’s better than reddit. The official Reddit app is just unpleasant to use.

Here’s your Firefox plugin: addons.mozilla.org/…/youtube-suite-search-fixer/

Cistello,

Pretty sure my Adblocker already does all of this I still use Youtube about 10% of the time to find new channels Piped provides some suggestions while you watch some Video but it can’t replaces YT’s homefeed

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