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Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

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Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#31

Post by progman32 »

YouTube is just so noisy. Inspired by this post, I threw a user style together: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/407461-plain-text-youtube-...

This works specifically for the subscription video list at https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions?flow=2

* Greatly compacts list layout - ~17 videos now fit on a 1080p screen vs four. Four!

* Hides video thumbnail - they're mostly noise.

* Hides uploader picture (text only name).

* Hides description - it's also usually noise.

* Hides view count - you're subscribed to the channel, is this really useful?

* Hides user verification checkmark - you're already subscribed; you know who this user is.

* All video titles made into lowercase - anti clickbait! Idea from this Show HN.

edit: formatting

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#33

Post by throwaway2048 »

doliveira wrote: post #24
dmos62 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's probably also how you get really interesting, yet somewhat-random-somewhat-related suggestions.

YouTube recommendations have gone to shit lately. I can't even find anything new, they always recommend me the same old channels over and over

Its even worse for me, they recommend me the same videos over and over again, even ones I've watched that very same day.

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#34

Post by lights0123 »

smichel17 wrote: post #18
oefrha wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> closed-source addons wget https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/downloads/file/3611176/youtube_distractfree-0.1-an+fx.xpi unzip youtube_distractfree-0.1-an+fx.xpi You'll find yt.css and ytt.js which aren't minimized/obfuscated. Browser extensions/addons are about as "closed source" as websites, or even less so in most cases (let's ignore wasm-powered websites or extensions for a second). Not linking to a GitHub reposi…

It's nice that one can do this, but I wish I didn't need to. Mozilla could easily add a way to view the source online. This would be much more convenient and obvious that it's possible.

I wish there was the same for Linux packages, there's been many times where I needed to reference a file that a package installed on another distro, but don't want to go through unzipping it and reading it, especially on mobile.

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#36

Post by Jommi »

itsoktocry wrote: post #20
sshagent wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There does seem a lot of that kinda shit nowadays. Websites thinking they know what you mean. Just search what i typed pleased, maybe if its got zero results then sure...have a guess what you think i intended. So often you can't search entire phrases of things, it'll arbitarily pick one word from your search and show you results on that. So annoying

> There does seem a lot of that kinda shit nowadays. Websites thinking they know what you mean. And we pretend it's "AI". It's horrible.

Well I think you both need to take a step back and be more objective. How would treat such an occurrence of it was your product?

Surely they would look at the data and supposedly, it could be that 90% times it actually is a great predictor of intentions, and these are just edge cases.

Edge cases will always happen. ALWAYS.

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#37

Post by kohtatsu »

Jommi wrote: post #36
itsoktocry wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There does seem a lot of that kinda shit nowadays. Websites thinking they know what you mean. And we pretend it's "AI". It's horrible.

Well I think you both need to take a step back and be more objective. How would treat such an occurrence of it was your product? Surely they would look at the data and supposedly, it could be that 90% times it actually is a great predictor of intentions, and these are just edge cases. Edge cases will always happen. ALWAYS.

Yes, I imagine most people will become engaged in a lot of videos that are offered, even if those videos aren't what they intended to watch.

The edge case is not being directed and consumed by an algorithm for profit.

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#38

Post by retox »

doliveira wrote: post #24
dmos62 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's probably also how you get really interesting, yet somewhat-random-somewhat-related suggestions.

YouTube recommendations have gone to shit lately. I can't even find anything new, they always recommend me the same old channels over and over

I don't have any proof but I believe it's because of all the stories in the press about scary "alt-right/conspiracy rabbit-holes" and how something _must_ be done. A YT rabbit-hole is exactly how the product should work; you watched these videos so I'll show you closely related videos because you're more likely to stay on the site and generate ad revenue.

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#39

Post by qzx_pierri »

progman32 wrote: post #31

YouTube is just so noisy. Inspired by this post, I threw a user style together: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/407461-plain-text-youtube-... This works specifically for the subscription video list at https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions?flow=2 * Greatly compacts list layout - ~17 videos now fit on a 1080p screen vs four. Four! * Hides video thumbnail - they're mostly noise. * Hides uploader picture (text onl…

This is pretty cool! If you implement mini thumbnails somehow, that would seal the deal for me.

Re: Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions

#40

Post by dependenttypes »

A bit unrelated but I have a complaint regarding firefox and addons.mozilla.org. In the past that site would let you browse through the code of the addon so that you could make sure that it did not contain anything malicious but now it lacks that option. In addition firefox does not give me the option to check the source of the plugin on updates so even if I manually download the plugin and review it the addon author can at any time introduce backdoors and firefox will automatically fetch the updated version. In addition as far as I am aware firefox only check for signatures from mozilla, not from the addon author, so mozilla can push malicious updates for addons if they wish without the addon creator knowing about it.
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