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”
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.
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.
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…
That was some William Gibson shit
that was amazing
LOL, brilliant adaptation!
They’re so brave.
That sounds familiar. Remember when we used to watch TV?
Oh that thing where in between the ads you can watch low quality reality shows for a few minutes? Yeah, those were the days…
tried watching a stone cold steve austin show once and had to stop because literally every 4 minutes there were ads. unwatchable
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.
4 mins? Is that an hyperbole? Oo
not sure but it felt like it
Goodness gracious ._.
they are screwing it on purpose to make room for their AI
Louis Rossman is my Alex Jones. He’s angry, compelling, and talking about something that makes him seen like a conspiracy theorist to normies. Unlike Jones, though, he’s usually right (if not always, I haven’t fact checked everything he’s ever said). It’s extremely cathartic to see someone use such extreme rhetoric to talk about privacy and software ownership and right to repair; e.g. it’s not “advertiser’s entitlement,” it’s “rapist mentality.”
Ironically, youtube’s inability to completely differentiate between people at the same IP has accidentally gotten my non-techie roommate into him too. I never shared his videos with her, never said anything about him, and one day I hear his voice as she browses the web. I’m so proud of her.
My least favorite thing about the “engagement friendly” slop in youtube’s search results is that it takes up HALF of the results. Because clearly what I expect from SEARCHING for something is to dredge up a bunch of shit that ranges from tangentially related to completely unrelated.
For example, I too just searched a song. Let’s see how that went:
7 results
4 “people also watched” videos
5 results
2 “More from [band name]” videos
2 results
3 “people also searched for” suggestions
2 results
3 “For you” vids (IS IT THE FUVKING SEARCH RESULTS I ASKED FOR??? BECAUSE IF NOT, IT’S NOT REALLY “FOR ME,” IS IT?)
2 Results
3 “From related searches”
2 resultsThat’s 20 results to 15 irrelevant pieces of ADHD triggering visual clutter. Luckily the results were actually relevant, unlike whatever you’re getting.
To all the commenters saying “I have X, I don’t have this problem”: I have adblock, I don’t have this problem, YOU’RE MISSING THE POINT:
YOUTUBE SEARCH IS BROKEN BY DEFAULT. The largest video sharing site on the internet is BROKEN BY DEFAULT. It shouldn’t require extra software to function properly when functioning properly requires less work on the server’s side
I agree with him on right to repair and other rights issues but I can’t stand the guy. He’s incredibly abrasive and annoying. I’m interested in people who have interesting things to say. Long, angry rants about stuff I already agree with are just a waste of my time.
I feel this, to an extent. I rather like the guy, I like what he stands for (for the most part, I don’t agree with his stance on at-will employment), but I don’t generally watch his videos for the same reason; angry preaching to the choir. I already agree, it’s mostly a waste of my time to watch.
I loved Rossmann, but he made a sharp turn to reactionary politics and selfish ideology about the time he really took off. His views on just about anything outside of right to repair are usually so far from right as to be entirely wrong. He also has this idea that because he’s good at repairing things, he must have great takes on everything, and started making so many ridiculously terrible politics videos it became almost impossible to find actually useful content. He’s a smart dude, but like many smart dudes, he’s an idiot in most ways outside his specialty.
It’s not that it’s broken by default, it’s that it’s broken deliberately. They don’t want you to just be able to find what you need and then leave, because that’s the civilized way of doing things, and they are GREEDY FUCKING BARBARIANS.
Deliberately broken by default?
Broken As Designed is generally broken by default, yes.
Youtube search results have been garbage for a while now :(
YoutubeGoogle search results have been garbage for a while now :(Youtube Googlesearch results have been garbage for a while now :(
What I have noticed is that if you add “before:2025” (or any other future date) it doesn’t show the unrelated stuff.
Try piped. Your feed is only what you subscribe to and theres a toggle to hide shorts
Or NewPipe
Or Tubular
Or PipePipe (at the time it was basically Newpipe with comments to me)
The SponsorBlock integration is a major difference from NewPipe
Or FreeTube
Stuck in local
Is it possible to turn recommendations on? I’m fine with those, but I never want to see shorts again.
No I dont think so. Theres a trending page on a feed page
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.
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).
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.
Have you tried to enable only one codec and set the default quality to something like 720p in the preferences?
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
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.
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…
Ya’ll need FreeTube.
Yal’l n’eed t’o lear’n a’bou’t apo’str’phe pl’ac’em’en’t’.
Ya will need freetube
Damn… That’s a good username. Wish I had thought of it
you can have it too, considering you’re on separate instances :P
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
This boy ain’t right
It’s “y’all” - as in a contraction of “you all.”
“Ya’ll” is the contraction for “yes, llama”
I get nothing. Google is all pissy I turned off history and refuse to use their app. So they refuse to suggest anything.
The upside is no bloat and no ads, just have to know a topic.
positive for me cause I dont want to see their shitty recommendations anyways. I just like/dislike a video to indicate I watched it.
- Here’s an extension which turns YouTube into an Invidious-like site, removing all addicting elements.
- If you’re using Linux, I wrote the youtube-tui a few years back, very similar to the extension where you get nothing but the search bar and subscriptions.
deleted by creator
Holy shit this is incredible. I have wanted a way to permanently hide shorts forever, thanks for sharing. Also it’s actually recommended by Mozilla which means it has active security audits on it, impressive.
🦀
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.
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:
-
Repeats same results multiple times;
-
Display unrelated Shorts nobody asked for;
-
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.
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.
-
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.
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.
Kubuntu is very friendly, it’s my daily. Try Mint if you want easier.
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.
just an fyi it’s userstyles.world now. The .org is dead.
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.
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.)
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.
I simply just stopped searching or clicking on anything I’m not subbed to while logged in. It’s like you commit a crime when you click something. Next then you know, that same fucking channel is following everywhere you go, in the home page and under every video you watch. Fuck google and fuck all this enshitification campaign the internet is undergoing
Unusable for me with ads as well. Grey loading screen and choppy audio instead of actually loading ads, never gets to the video. If I reopen the video a few times to skip the ad the video loads fine. No problems with online gaming, streaming services, etc so I know it’s their shit Roku app and ad network and not me. Ad blockers make it actually usable.
Their incompetence opens room for other platforms
Oh, we’ve been through this though. Which other platform will ever have the cash to be a real contender here?
DouYin, you know, the Chinese YouTube
That’s sarcasm though, as I expect them to be as malicious as YouTube
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.
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.
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.
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.
Twitch could. Still wild they don’t allow editing vods or uploading videos.
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.
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
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.
Video hosting is a money sink, I wouldn’t hold my breath that somebody else comes along.
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.
Vimeo charges users money to upload videos
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.
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.
The free market has always resulted in the best outcomes for the people!!
soon google will block ALL forms of front ends
I doubt it as that would break all of the embedded videos on the internet
