Youtube is now unusable without a frontend

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.

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 results

That'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

Youtube search 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.

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.

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

Ya'll need FreeTube.

• 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.

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:

  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.

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 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 thing 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

Their incompetence opens room for other platforms

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.

soon google will block ALL forms of front ends

I get usable results for "Boards of Canada". You've got some personal problems happening.

Has been for years already sadly. I recommend https://github.com/user234683/youtube-local to watch directly and https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl to download. They both remove the dark patterns trying to abuse the attention of viewers.

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.

also be sure to disable cookies on youtube, it gets rid of weird suggestions and usually only suggests videos related to the current one

I remembered there was a thing that came out not too long ago that proved that silicon valley executives literally don't know what consent is.

i ran into this kind of garbage the other day looking for a Nicholas Jaar video when i couldn't recall the name. like BoC, there's tons and tons of tracks by Jaar, but results gave me one or two of his most popular tracks and a buuuuuunch of other stuff. i couldn't even just keep scrolling, there were a dozen results and then the "related search" garbage.

ugh, i'm so fed up with google, and at the same time not motivated enough to figure out workarounds. i have work and shit to do around my house.

i guess, with me, they won.

edit typo

Piped. Trust me.

Upvoted for BoC

as a boards lover myself, i just have to comment on this, for one, impeccable taste in music.

anyway, i tested this myself, seems fine. Have you tried disabling the watch history bullshit? It even lists a sidebar full of album related shit.

So uh, go off queen ig.

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

On a similar note, does anybody know of a frontend or add on for Instagram? I do not want the suggested content and reels they shove down everyone's throats because it is very easy to waste hours and get distracted easily with it. Also no ads would be nice. I have to use Instagram to keep in touch with certain people who I have no alternative means of keeping in touch with.

Works for me

In fairness, I have no idea what I would want from that search query.

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

My method for android & desktop. I never sign in to YouTube & never use the app. Using Joplin synced through Nextcloud (any syncable note taking app would do the trick) I keep a list of channels ("subscriptions") & interesting looking videos ("watch later") which I group by length. Obviously, this way the links can be via Piped, YouTube whatever.

I only ever interract through browser which is never signed in. Kiwi browser on Android, Firefox or Brave on desktop. All of them run uBlock + SponsorBlock + DeArrow.

DeArrow is by the same dev/s as SponsorBlock & gives anti clickbait crowd sourced titles & thumbs. Its become an invaluable tool so I'm glad to have paid to offer some support.

All of the browsers have history/cookies etc cleared once closed.

Great band though, you've got good taste

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!

OK but what does that have to do with privacy?

Cool music taste.

They are in a endless cycle

hold up... danTDM?

You guys still using youtube?

In using smarttube on my shield and search works perfectly, and revanced still works on mobile. I never use thd Tube on desktop, is there no good solution on that platform?

Uh, yeah. Use <search engine of choice>, give search term, go to <video> tab or corresponding functionality.

Why would you use youtube's internal search anyway? It's age-old knowledge that such platforms use algorithms to "engage" (manipulate) you.

It's usable with the default stuff, well, minus the fucking 5 second ads

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

I use YouTube with https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-fixer-for-youtube/bojdknokkpgboeonegndfcgkaommhleo

What extension do you use?

People here won't complain about anything until their favourite youtuber tells them why it's bad.

It's amazing how hard some of you work to make YouTube enjoyable. Here's a tip: stop watching YouTube.

"Literally UNUSABLE!"

Meanwhile 99% of the planet uses it just fine.

I've used Vanced, ReVanced, Newpipe, LibreTube etc. for years and finally just gave up with the neverending third part app hassle, got YouTube Premium and disabled watch history. Sure it's costly, but at least everything works, there are no ads and shorts don't work without watch history. Win some, lose some ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I don't know anyone that watches YouTube regularly. Seems like such a boomer thing