
Show HN: YouTube Search Fixer – Firefox addon that removes unrelated suggestions - phoennix
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-suite-search-fixer/
======
fimdomeio
I just notice how messed up the search is very recently. One of the things
that it does is that it uses search terms from previous searches in the
results for a specific search, it's awful for people with diverse weird
interests.

My example I was searching for "primitive garden irrigation systems" after
searching for some "city building games". Half of my results were "water
canals in city skylines". It's both useless for what I was searching before
and what I'm searching now.

~~~
dmos62
But that's probably also how you get really interesting, yet somewhat-random-
somewhat-related suggestions.

~~~
doliveira
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

~~~
retox
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.

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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-...](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/407461-plain-text-youtube-
subscription-list)

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

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

------
phoennix
Hey all, apologies my internet was in error I just check the comment section.
Also sorry, I did not link the repository earlier I missed it but no worries,
I have provided all files of addon here for you now:
[https://gitlab.com/phoennix/youtubesearchfix](https://gitlab.com/phoennix/youtubesearchfix)

Thanks for all the kind words.

------
kkaranth
EDIT: @OP I do not see a link to the source for the addon. I think a lot of
users would be vary of installing closed-source addons.

This is great, some YouTube features are just so annoying. And I cannot
disable them even though I pay for YouTube premium.

An alternative to this is to add this to your ublock origin list:

    
    
      www.youtube.com##ytd-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer
    

it _seems_ to be working, but I do not know if there are any other
ramifications. (for instance, I use the rule
[https://www.google.*/xjs/*](https://www.google.*/xjs/*) to block the "people
also search for..." on google.com and I recently realized that that breaks
google maps-based search results)

~~~
junkblocker
This addon makes is super easy and convenient to inspect any addon's source
code

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/crxviewer/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/crxviewer/)

~~~
milofeynman
While this is useful, I won't add add-ons if they don't have a GitHub/gitlab
because the barrier to review is significantly more and I shouldn't need to
look at the entire extensions source code every time it updates. Could they
sneak in a release that's not on the GitHub page? Sure. But as long as I stick
with the big add-ons I'll survive.

------
phoennix
Hey all, it's very basic problem that I aimed to fix with my first ever
extension. I designed it to fix YouTube search. It removes "For you", "Related
to your search" and other distractions from your results. It also fine tunes
some visual interface elements and aims to synchronize the design language.

I realize there will always be bugs despite my best attempt so I would be
greatly appreciative of your suggestions and critiques. Both are equally
welcome.

~~~
rapnie
As other commenter mentioned there's no source, though under Versions it
states "Source code released under MIT/X11 License". Do you have a link?

~~~
Fiveplus
I think he forgot to answer you but OP mentioned it elsewhere on the
thread[1].

[1][https://gitlab.com/phoennix/youtubesearchfix](https://gitlab.com/phoennix/youtubesearchfix)

------
BitwiseFool
The problem with YouTube nowadays is that it's mission isn't to get you to
watch something, it's to get you to watch _something else_. Pause the video?
See suggestions. Start watching video? See suggestions.

So I appreciate anything that reduces the amount of suggestions that appear to
me.

~~~
kace91
I've also noticed that. It's very annoying to press space to pause the video,
have a giant pop up cover the whole thing, and then having focus switched so
that now space deals with the suggestion instead of resuming the video.

------
gxx
I usually search videos with Bing using the !bv redirect from DuckDuckGo.
Google's video search is shockingly bad, considering they own YouTube.

Not only are Bing's results more on target, it also displays search results
much more conveniently. Also Bing supports the "+" operator that Google does
not. (Also the "-" operator.) These allow accurate targeting of what you are
looking for.

I also usually redirect to Bing image search (!bi in DDG) because their
support of the "+" operator allows more accurate search targeting.

------
sub7
There's also this, which forced verbatim search on google.

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unfuck-
google...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/unfuck-google/)

Warning: bug with clicking image results on the main search results page.

------
gruez
I also find it helpful to adblock the home page and "related videos"
suggestions (both sidebar and after the video finishes). It really helps you
from getting tempted/distracted by clickbait videos or getting stuck in a
rabbit hole.

~~~
aorth
Exactly! I came here to suggest the Clickbait Remover for Youtube plugin for
Firefox. Sometimes I forget it's installed and I'm surprised when I use
YouTube on the phone or TV and see tantalizing thumbnails.

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-
rem...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clickbait-remover-for-
youtube/)

~~~
gruez
I find it funny how even though it removes the clickbait thumbnails, the
"youtube face" is still inexplicably there there.

[https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-
media/previews/full/223/...](https://addons.cdn.mozilla.net/user-
media/previews/full/223/223240.png?modified=1565030067)

------
TobTobXX
I think this might be intentional functionality to reduce expensive search
operations. Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but search engine caches aren't
useful if they can't be reused, thus they also serve results of previous
queries that might match with the current one.

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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.

------
fareesh
Similar to Twitter without blue checks I think YouTube without large
corporations would be quite nice. Can't think of a good way to filter those
though, other than a giant blocklist.

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hitech_dude
What is the legal landscape?

We know adblockers are legal We know "auto clicker" sites which skip some
content can be sued for TOS violations

We even saw aggregation/search sites being sued

Good luck to the OP and I hope u grow and thrive

------
Avery3R
This is unusable unless you're also using dark mode

~~~
phoennix
Hello Avery3R, I release update that fixes this problem today morning. Many
people reached out that they use light mode, now it's there. Feel free to
check out latest version from addon store

