18 ms·

Show HN: Firefox add-on to open YouTube videos in alternative front ends

333 points by d3vr 3y ago

YouTube started blocking me because I use an adblocker. So I made this simple Firefox Add-On (haven't made it cross-browser yet, contributions welcome!) to open videos in alternative front-ends (piped.video by default). Default keybinding: Alt+J to reopen current page in the configured frontend. Shift+Click to open any video in a new tab in the configured frontend. You can change the default frontend to something else if you like.

aftergibson 3y ago
What does this do differently to Privacy Redirect? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redir...
- ericra 3y ago
  Well, for one, the addon you linked has not been updated for over 2 years. This doesn't speak to the substance of your question really, but ad-blocking is a whack-a-mole game. Resources need to be constantly updated to keep up with companies' efforts to thwart them. It's always nice to see new efforts in this space.
- elashri 3y ago
  This addon seems not to be updated in years. I would like to mention LibRedirect [1] which offers more front ends for more websites and seems more actively developed [2] [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/libredirect https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/libredirect [2] https://github.com/libredirect/browser_extension https://github.com/libredirect/browser_extension
  - username135 3y ago
    +1 for libredirect
    - ploum 3y ago
      I also use libredirect but it has this annoying bug where the reddit redirect will randomly stop working and the only way to solve it is to completely uninstall the extension (not only disabling) then reinstall. But I can’t stand anymore to be on Twitter or Medium so it is a must. I also use it for Youtube, stackoverflow. I’m a bit confused by the current project because there are litteraly tenths of Youtube->invidious/alternative frontend and I don’t understand why this one is different.
      - rglullis 3y ago
        > reddit redirect will randomly stop working One of the goals from https://github.com/mushroomlabs/fediverser https://github.com/mushroomlabs/fediverser is to mirror reddit discussions into different Lemmy instances. This coming week I'm planning to work on the part that lets you connect your reddit account to a respective Lemmy instance and migrate your posts. Would you like to try it out?
        ploum 3y ago
        I don’t have a reddit account nor a lemmy one but good luck, your project is much needed!
wetpaws 3y ago
[dead]
ericra 3y ago
The link[1] to the Firefox add-on page on your Github repo is dead. Has this just not been published yet? [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-siphon/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-siphon/
- d3vr 3y ago
  Thanks for reporting, Mozilla took some time to approve the add-on on their store. It's now available.
jraph 3y ago
I've been using Privacy Redirect and some of the other generalist redirector extension with quite some success. Privacy redirect also redirects twitter to nitter, reddit to libreddit or old.reddit, Google Maps to openstreetmap and other stuff. Redirects can be enabled/disabled to ones taste. That's quite neat. Combined with my private invidious instance so I can subscribe to channels without this data leaving computers I control. May your own extension succeed too. I guess building it and releasing it are already two successes on their own.
- kingTug 3y ago
  Are nitter instances still working? I was under the impression that project died when Elon curtailed api access.
  - askiiart 3y ago
    Yep, nitter still works.
    - mirashii 3y ago
      Although not out of the box right now, it requires running some external scripts to grab guest accounts and running a build off a branch or fork. See https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/issues/983 https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/issues/983
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - petemir 3y ago
    They keep working with a workaround, by using guest tokens handed out to the Android application. So, until they change the functioning of the app, it will keep working.
  - Modified3019 3y ago
    I used the official nitter.net instance successfully just yesterday, at least with the limited functionality I cared about. It’s likely to come and go as they fight an arms race.
politelemon 3y ago
On Android you can try NewPipe which serves as an alternate front end.
- jszymborski 3y ago
  Can anyone recommend a NewPipe style desktop app?
  - Schinken_ 3y ago
    Invidious might be something worth looking at
  - elashri 3y ago
    FreeTupe [1] would be the closest thing you can have. [1] https://freetubeapp.io https://freetubeapp.io
  - user234683 3y ago
    My project here is similar: https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local It keeps everything in the browser while still being local to the machine
Shekelphile 3y ago
Doesn’t libredirect already do this? Though I don’t use it for YouTube so I can’t say for sure
toomuchtodo 3y ago
Can Peertube mirror a list of YouTube channels? And could this then open that Peertube instance?
- d3vr 3y ago
  See my answer to @Cilvic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37884815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37884815
d3vr 3y ago
Seems like there's a bit of confusion about what the add-on does exactly. It doesn't automatically redirect all YouTube pages you open. This however gives you the choice to open the pages you want in an alternative frontend. My use case is basically I browse the YT homepage and Shift+click the videos I want to watch. Or if someone shares a link to a video, I access that page and Alt+J to redirect to the alternative frontend.
- Cilvic 3y ago
  Thanks for explaining, but what is an alternative frontend in this case?
  - d3vr 3y ago
    I've also just updated the README to make it more obvious what the extension does. The default alternative frontend I have configured is https://piped.video https://piped.video , but you can use any different instance / service if it supports the same YouTube url scheme ({domain}/watch?v=...). This is configurable in the add-on's options page, you can also access it by clicking on the add-on's icon
    - Cilvic 3y ago
      Thanks, I've looked at the docs of newpipe and invidious and neither make it straight forward to understand how they work. Both focus on "this is more private than watching on youtube" It sounds like there is some kind of instance/server which my client/with a cleaner frontend will talk to. But how does that work and why can youtube not detect it and block it?
      - Cilvic 3y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invidious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invidious This describes how it works at least tiny bit: >Invidious does not use the official YouTube API, but scrapes the website for video and metadata such as likes and views.[10]
      - 3y ago
KennyBlanken 3y ago
While we're on the subject of youtube annoyances: are there any extensions that disable "ambient mode?" This infuriating feature provides nothing useful and absolutely murders Apple Silicon GPUs, draining the battery very, very quickly.
- d3vr 3y ago
  I remember there was a toggle in the player settings to disable Ambient Mode, have they removed that option ?
- RockRobotRock 3y ago
  I have never seen it turn itself back on after disabling it once.
darau1 3y ago
I really wish there was a way to annotate youtube videos easily. Kind of like hypothesis[1], but for video/streaming content. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87h0nYi-i9o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87h0nYi-i9o edit: turns out there is something already: https://docdrop.org/ https://docdrop.org/
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
Krasnol 3y ago
I'm using ublock Origin and have never seen any of those. For those with ubO who still see them, cleaning the cache and updating the filters within ubO seems to help. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
- d3vr 3y ago
  I am using ubO too, I just purged the cache and updated the filters, still experiencing the same issue. Maybe YT is still testing this and haven't rolled out the blocking on everyone just yet?
  - langsoul-com 3y ago
    Go on the unlock origin reddit, they have clear instructions for getting it working. Basically disable all current ad blockers, including YouTube enhancer ad blocker, reset filters to default, make sure there's no cosmetic filters either. And it should work L.
  - PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
    with ubO you can tell it to remove elements from a page permanently (every time it's loaded). I just used the picker, removed the elements, saved it, and haven't looked back. I also did this with the stack overflow nag.
    - HlessClaudesman 3y ago
      Yeah I did this too, but my use case is ordered playlists of songs, and now every video pauses itself after a few seconds. Gonna try the ublock reset as outlined above, failing that I'll test uMatrix to turn off / lobotomise specific scripts.
- Jach 3y ago
  I've yet to encounter these also. I've assumed it's just been luck with the A/B testing.. But perhaps it could also be that I've never allowed doubleclick.net scripts to run in NoScript, or that my ublock-origin setup has taken care of itself, or that because I've actually participated in youtube's other non-premium monetization schemes (channel memberships) from which they take a 30% cut and they want to upset somewhat paying users last.
SushiHippie 3y ago
As others mentioned: https://libredirect.github.io/ https://libredirect.github.io/ It redirects so many pages to their privacy friendly frontends. Can't use the internet anymore without this extension.
- kiliankoe 3y ago
  It's especially helpful for medium posts imho. The alternatives load several orders of magnitude faster.
ksherlock 3y ago
I made myself a bookmarklet last week to open the current URL with invidious. Not because of the adblocker prejudice (although there were reports, it hadn't hit me yet) but because YouTube was increasingly unable or unwilling to play videos. As a side benefit, invidious can block comments and related videos so it's a better experience. javascript:window.location=%22https://[your https://[your favorite invidious implementation]/watch%22+document.location.search
ryandrake 3y ago
It would be nice if browsers were able to get around all these kinds of shenanigans directly, instead of having to always reach for extensions and addons and endlessly participate in this cat and mouse game. After all, the browser is supposed to be the user's agent. Its job is to do what the user wants and fetch the content that the user asks for. Somewhere along the path, we've made a terrible turn and allowed the browsers to become agents of the web developers instead, gatekeeping on behalf of web sites, rather than serving the user's interests. My ideal browser would load up a site like YouTube, and, knowing my already-configured preference for ad-free, minimalist layout, would present it as a Craigslist-style list of links with thumbnails, ignoring the mess of JS and CSS that the site's developer futilely sends.
- drdaeman 3y ago
  > Somewhere along the path, we've made a terrible turn It was a variation of Eternal September that caused it. ;) The majority of users became non-technical, so the focus had shifted as browser vendors needed to cater to different audiences.
  - tgv 3y ago
    Not needed, but could. Google simply exploited that possibility, from the start.
- paulryanrogers 3y ago
  My ideal getaway car would include an automated drone which flies into the store to exfiltrate the codes from the prepaid cards, and present them as credits in my phone, ignoring the mess of walking inside, paying, and typing into my phone that the retailer futilely demands.
  - whelp_24 3y ago
    This analogy isn't even close.
    - 3y ago
loveparade 3y ago
I don't care as much about the privacy as I care about not messing up my Youtube recommendations. Any time I accidentally click on or hover over some BS video my front page is full of clickbait spam and I need to manually clean up my watch history. I guess (?) it works for monetization, but the UX of YouTube and their pushing of clickbait content has become horrible over the past few years. I just wish they stopped trying to be "smart" about what I want to watch. I'm already paying for Premium, just give me an option to make Youtube stupid.
- _Algernon_ 3y ago
  The option for making youtube stupid has always been there. It is called the subscription feed: https://youtube.com/feed/subscriptions https://youtube.com/feed/subscriptions You can hide all the other sections using an extension like UnHook: https://unhook.app/ https://unhook.app/
  - loveparade 3y ago
    Thanks, I wasn't aware of Unhook. I know the I can use the subscriptions feed, but it doesn't solve all problems. When I open YT on my phone, or on my TV, I still get blasted with recommendations and clickbait. When I search for a keyword I get relevant results interspersed with clickbaity content (similar to Google SEO spam), and so on. This problem permeates the whole YT experience because the business model is maximize engagement metrics and ad view time at all costs. Unhook looks good indeed, I guess I am just a bit frustrated that I need external extensions, many of which are linked in this thread, and hacks to fight against services that try to monetize my attention. Especially when I already pay for them.
- zeta0134 3y ago
  I've long since blocked the recommendation content. No sidebar, no end-of-video overlay, no homepage content at all. Just a search box, thanks. (And even that's gotten functionally useless over the years; external search engines are much better at finding that one video I remember seeing but can't seem to convince YT proper to actually show me.) Then again, I curate my subscriptions. Nobody I follow posts more than once every couple of weeks or so. Most days my subscription page looks the same as it did yesterday, so when I do have a new video to watch it's more like a rare treat.
marttt 3y ago
For a few years, I've been using the Redirector add-on [1] to redirect Yotube URLs to various Invidious instances. No ads, and easy to tailor the visual experience to your needs. Here's my Redirector rule: Youtube Redirect: https://www.youtube.com/* to: https://invidious.protokolla.fi/$1 Hint: Youtube > Invidious instance redirection Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hipBryeDc0E → https://invidious.protokolla.fi/watch?v=hipBryeDc0E Applies to: Main window (address bar) As a parenting control trick, I also use Redirector to direct some of the more immersive gaming sites to about:blank for our 10yo son. Definitely proud of that hack, ha. 1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/
- redder23 3y ago
  The issue is that Invidious only supports 720p
  - kaliqt 3y ago
    What's preventing them from going higher? Also I think Invidious sorely needs UX updates to help make it easier to avoid having to go to Youtube.
  - tuan 3y ago
    Hmm I installed invidious yesterday and was able to watch 1080p. Maybe you need to update to the latest.
  - unixfox 3y ago
    Not true, please consult the documentation: https://docs.invidious.io/faq/#table-of-contents https://docs.invidious.io/faq/#table-of-contents
    - redder23 3y ago
      All the public instances I recently visited did not support >720. I remember having to specifically select it and it was not really working currently some time back I think.
gpgn 3y ago
I saw the popup just once, I updated most of the filters used by uBlockOrigin and I haven't seen it since.
amir734jj 3y ago
I use YouTube to watch videos of news uploaded on their YouTube channel like CNN and NBC and etc, I'm wondering what's the YouTube alternative for me?
ftk_ 3y ago
Here's how I use youtube, usually without opening web frontend at all: Install mpv and yt-dlp. Use play-with addon to open youtube or other video links directly in mpv. Periodically convert youtube subscriptions into OPML using an userscript. Import OPML into freetube or other RSS reader to check for new videos. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/play-with/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/play-with/ https://github.com/theborg3of5/Userscripts/tree/master/youtubeRSSExport https://github.com/theborg3of5/Userscripts/tree/master/youtu...
karaterobot 3y ago
I just use the FreeTube desktop client, because even if you get around the anti ad-blocking stuff on YT, you're still left with the increasingly terrible UX. No doubt they'll block FreeTube and Invidious sooner or later, but until then I don't even need to worry about the Youtube website at all.
dsp_person 3y ago
Here's several options for opening with either mpv or saving with yt-dlp: https://github.com/Thann/play-with-mpv https://github.com/Thann/play-with-mpv (chrome) https://github.com/Baldomo/open-in-mpv https://github.com/Baldomo/open-in-mpv (chrome and firefox) https://github.com/MasterDevX/mpvnet https://github.com/MasterDevX/mpvnet (chrome and firefox)

333 points by d3vr 3y ago

aftergibson 3y ago

What does this do differently to Privacy Redirect? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redirect/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/privacy-redir...

ericra 3y ago
Well, for one, the addon you linked has not been updated for over 2 years. This doesn't speak to the substance of your question really, but ad-blocking is a whack-a-mole game. Resources need to be constantly updated to keep up with companies' efforts to thwart them. It's always nice to see new efforts in this space.
elashri 3y ago
This addon seems not to be updated in years. I would like to mention LibRedirect [1] which offers more front ends for more websites and seems more actively developed [2] [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/libredirect https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/libredirect [2] https://github.com/libredirect/browser_extension https://github.com/libredirect/browser_extension
- username135 3y ago
  +1 for libredirect
  - ploum 3y ago
    I also use libredirect but it has this annoying bug where the reddit redirect will randomly stop working and the only way to solve it is to completely uninstall the extension (not only disabling) then reinstall. But I can’t stand anymore to be on Twitter or Medium so it is a must. I also use it for Youtube, stackoverflow. I’m a bit confused by the current project because there are litteraly tenths of Youtube->invidious/alternative frontend and I don’t understand why this one is different.
    - rglullis 3y ago
      > reddit redirect will randomly stop working One of the goals from https://github.com/mushroomlabs/fediverser https://github.com/mushroomlabs/fediverser is to mirror reddit discussions into different Lemmy instances. This coming week I'm planning to work on the part that lets you connect your reddit account to a respective Lemmy instance and migrate your posts. Would you like to try it out?
      - ploum 3y ago
        I don’t have a reddit account nor a lemmy one but good luck, your project is much needed!

wetpaws 3y ago

[dead]

ericra 3y ago

The link[1] to the Firefox add-on page on your Github repo is dead. Has this just not been published yet? [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-siphon/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/yt-siphon/

d3vr 3y ago
Thanks for reporting, Mozilla took some time to approve the add-on on their store. It's now available.

jraph 3y ago

I've been using Privacy Redirect and some of the other generalist redirector extension with quite some success. Privacy redirect also redirects twitter to nitter, reddit to libreddit or old.reddit, Google Maps to openstreetmap and other stuff. Redirects can be enabled/disabled to ones taste. That's quite neat. Combined with my private invidious instance so I can subscribe to channels without this data leaving computers I control. May your own extension succeed too. I guess building it and releasing it are already two successes on their own.

kingTug 3y ago
Are nitter instances still working? I was under the impression that project died when Elon curtailed api access.
- askiiart 3y ago
  Yep, nitter still works.
  - mirashii 3y ago
    Although not out of the box right now, it requires running some external scripts to grab guest accounts and running a build off a branch or fork. See https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/issues/983 https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/issues/983
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- petemir 3y ago
  They keep working with a workaround, by using guest tokens handed out to the Android application. So, until they change the functioning of the app, it will keep working.
- Modified3019 3y ago
  I used the official nitter.net instance successfully just yesterday, at least with the limited functionality I cared about. It’s likely to come and go as they fight an arms race.

politelemon 3y ago

On Android you can try NewPipe which serves as an alternate front end.

jszymborski 3y ago
Can anyone recommend a NewPipe style desktop app?
- Schinken_ 3y ago
  Invidious might be something worth looking at
- elashri 3y ago
  FreeTupe [1] would be the closest thing you can have. [1] https://freetubeapp.io https://freetubeapp.io
- user234683 3y ago
  My project here is similar: https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local It keeps everything in the browser while still being local to the machine

Shekelphile 3y ago

Doesn’t libredirect already do this? Though I don’t use it for YouTube so I can’t say for sure

toomuchtodo 3y ago

Can Peertube mirror a list of YouTube channels? And could this then open that Peertube instance?

d3vr 3y ago
See my answer to @Cilvic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37884815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37884815

d3vr 3y ago

Seems like there's a bit of confusion about what the add-on does exactly. It doesn't automatically redirect all YouTube pages you open. This however gives you the choice to open the pages you want in an alternative frontend. My use case is basically I browse the YT homepage and Shift+click the videos I want to watch. Or if someone shares a link to a video, I access that page and Alt+J to redirect to the alternative frontend.

Cilvic 3y ago
Thanks for explaining, but what is an alternative frontend in this case?
- d3vr 3y ago
  I've also just updated the README to make it more obvious what the extension does. The default alternative frontend I have configured is https://piped.video https://piped.video , but you can use any different instance / service if it supports the same YouTube url scheme ({domain}/watch?v=...). This is configurable in the add-on's options page, you can also access it by clicking on the add-on's icon
  - Cilvic 3y ago
    Thanks, I've looked at the docs of newpipe and invidious and neither make it straight forward to understand how they work. Both focus on "this is more private than watching on youtube" It sounds like there is some kind of instance/server which my client/with a cleaner frontend will talk to. But how does that work and why can youtube not detect it and block it?
    - Cilvic 3y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invidious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invidious This describes how it works at least tiny bit: >Invidious does not use the official YouTube API, but scrapes the website for video and metadata such as likes and views.[10]
    - 3y ago

KennyBlanken 3y ago

While we're on the subject of youtube annoyances: are there any extensions that disable "ambient mode?" This infuriating feature provides nothing useful and absolutely murders Apple Silicon GPUs, draining the battery very, very quickly.

d3vr 3y ago
I remember there was a toggle in the player settings to disable Ambient Mode, have they removed that option ?
RockRobotRock 3y ago
I have never seen it turn itself back on after disabling it once.

darau1 3y ago

I really wish there was a way to annotate youtube videos easily. Kind of like hypothesis[1], but for video/streaming content. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87h0nYi-i9o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87h0nYi-i9o edit: turns out there is something already: https://docdrop.org/ https://docdrop.org/

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Krasnol 3y ago

I'm using ublock Origin and have never seen any of those. For those with ubO who still see them, cleaning the cache and updating the filters within ubO seems to help. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...

d3vr 3y ago
I am using ubO too, I just purged the cache and updated the filters, still experiencing the same issue. Maybe YT is still testing this and haven't rolled out the blocking on everyone just yet?
- langsoul-com 3y ago
  Go on the unlock origin reddit, they have clear instructions for getting it working. Basically disable all current ad blockers, including YouTube enhancer ad blocker, reset filters to default, make sure there's no cosmetic filters either. And it should work L.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y ago
  with ubO you can tell it to remove elements from a page permanently (every time it's loaded). I just used the picker, removed the elements, saved it, and haven't looked back. I also did this with the stack overflow nag.
  - HlessClaudesman 3y ago
    Yeah I did this too, but my use case is ordered playlists of songs, and now every video pauses itself after a few seconds. Gonna try the ublock reset as outlined above, failing that I'll test uMatrix to turn off / lobotomise specific scripts.
Jach 3y ago
I've yet to encounter these also. I've assumed it's just been luck with the A/B testing.. But perhaps it could also be that I've never allowed doubleclick.net scripts to run in NoScript, or that my ublock-origin setup has taken care of itself, or that because I've actually participated in youtube's other non-premium monetization schemes (channel memberships) from which they take a 30% cut and they want to upset somewhat paying users last.

SushiHippie 3y ago

As others mentioned: https://libredirect.github.io/ https://libredirect.github.io/ It redirects so many pages to their privacy friendly frontends. Can't use the internet anymore without this extension.

kiliankoe 3y ago
It's especially helpful for medium posts imho. The alternatives load several orders of magnitude faster.

ksherlock 3y ago

I made myself a bookmarklet last week to open the current URL with invidious. Not because of the adblocker prejudice (although there were reports, it hadn't hit me yet) but because YouTube was increasingly unable or unwilling to play videos. As a side benefit, invidious can block comments and related videos so it's a better experience. javascript:window.location=%22https://[your https://[your favorite invidious implementation]/watch%22+document.location.search

ryandrake 3y ago

It would be nice if browsers were able to get around all these kinds of shenanigans directly, instead of having to always reach for extensions and addons and endlessly participate in this cat and mouse game. After all, the browser is supposed to be the user's agent. Its job is to do what the user wants and fetch the content that the user asks for. Somewhere along the path, we've made a terrible turn and allowed the browsers to become agents of the web developers instead, gatekeeping on behalf of web sites, rather than serving the user's interests. My ideal browser would load up a site like YouTube, and, knowing my already-configured preference for ad-free, minimalist layout, would present it as a Craigslist-style list of links with thumbnails, ignoring the mess of JS and CSS that the site's developer futilely sends.

drdaeman 3y ago
> Somewhere along the path, we've made a terrible turn It was a variation of Eternal September that caused it. ;) The majority of users became non-technical, so the focus had shifted as browser vendors needed to cater to different audiences.
- tgv 3y ago
  Not needed, but could. Google simply exploited that possibility, from the start.
paulryanrogers 3y ago
My ideal getaway car would include an automated drone which flies into the store to exfiltrate the codes from the prepaid cards, and present them as credits in my phone, ignoring the mess of walking inside, paying, and typing into my phone that the retailer futilely demands.
- whelp_24 3y ago
  This analogy isn't even close.
  - 3y ago

loveparade 3y ago

I don't care as much about the privacy as I care about not messing up my Youtube recommendations. Any time I accidentally click on or hover over some BS video my front page is full of clickbait spam and I need to manually clean up my watch history. I guess (?) it works for monetization, but the UX of YouTube and their pushing of clickbait content has become horrible over the past few years. I just wish they stopped trying to be "smart" about what I want to watch. I'm already paying for Premium, just give me an option to make Youtube stupid.

_Algernon_ 3y ago
The option for making youtube stupid has always been there. It is called the subscription feed: https://youtube.com/feed/subscriptions https://youtube.com/feed/subscriptions You can hide all the other sections using an extension like UnHook: https://unhook.app/ https://unhook.app/
- loveparade 3y ago
  Thanks, I wasn't aware of Unhook. I know the I can use the subscriptions feed, but it doesn't solve all problems. When I open YT on my phone, or on my TV, I still get blasted with recommendations and clickbait. When I search for a keyword I get relevant results interspersed with clickbaity content (similar to Google SEO spam), and so on. This problem permeates the whole YT experience because the business model is maximize engagement metrics and ad view time at all costs. Unhook looks good indeed, I guess I am just a bit frustrated that I need external extensions, many of which are linked in this thread, and hacks to fight against services that try to monetize my attention. Especially when I already pay for them.
zeta0134 3y ago
I've long since blocked the recommendation content. No sidebar, no end-of-video overlay, no homepage content at all. Just a search box, thanks. (And even that's gotten functionally useless over the years; external search engines are much better at finding that one video I remember seeing but can't seem to convince YT proper to actually show me.) Then again, I curate my subscriptions. Nobody I follow posts more than once every couple of weeks or so. Most days my subscription page looks the same as it did yesterday, so when I do have a new video to watch it's more like a rare treat.

marttt 3y ago

For a few years, I've been using the Redirector add-on [1] to redirect Yotube URLs to various Invidious instances. No ads, and easy to tailor the visual experience to your needs. Here's my Redirector rule: Youtube Redirect: https://www.youtube.com/* to: https://invidious.protokolla.fi/$1 Hint: Youtube > Invidious instance redirection Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hipBryeDc0E → https://invidious.protokolla.fi/watch?v=hipBryeDc0E Applies to: Main window (address bar) As a parenting control trick, I also use Redirector to direct some of the more immersive gaming sites to about:blank for our 10yo son. Definitely proud of that hack, ha. 1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/

redder23 3y ago
The issue is that Invidious only supports 720p
- kaliqt 3y ago
  What's preventing them from going higher? Also I think Invidious sorely needs UX updates to help make it easier to avoid having to go to Youtube.
- tuan 3y ago
  Hmm I installed invidious yesterday and was able to watch 1080p. Maybe you need to update to the latest.
- unixfox 3y ago
  Not true, please consult the documentation: https://docs.invidious.io/faq/#table-of-contents https://docs.invidious.io/faq/#table-of-contents
  - redder23 3y ago
    All the public instances I recently visited did not support >720. I remember having to specifically select it and it was not really working currently some time back I think.

gpgn 3y ago

I saw the popup just once, I updated most of the filters used by uBlockOrigin and I haven't seen it since.

amir734jj 3y ago

I use YouTube to watch videos of news uploaded on their YouTube channel like CNN and NBC and etc, I'm wondering what's the YouTube alternative for me?

ftk_ 3y ago

Here's how I use youtube, usually without opening web frontend at all: Install mpv and yt-dlp. Use play-with addon to open youtube or other video links directly in mpv. Periodically convert youtube subscriptions into OPML using an userscript. Import OPML into freetube or other RSS reader to check for new videos. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/play-with/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/play-with/ https://github.com/theborg3of5/Userscripts/tree/master/youtubeRSSExport https://github.com/theborg3of5/Userscripts/tree/master/youtu...

karaterobot 3y ago

I just use the FreeTube desktop client, because even if you get around the anti ad-blocking stuff on YT, you're still left with the increasingly terrible UX. No doubt they'll block FreeTube and Invidious sooner or later, but until then I don't even need to worry about the Youtube website at all.

dsp_person 3y ago

Here's several options for opening with either mpv or saving with yt-dlp: https://github.com/Thann/play-with-mpv https://github.com/Thann/play-with-mpv (chrome) https://github.com/Baldomo/open-in-mpv https://github.com/Baldomo/open-in-mpv (chrome and firefox) https://github.com/MasterDevX/mpvnet https://github.com/MasterDevX/mpvnet (chrome and firefox)