Youtube is now unusable without a frontend ( lemmy.world )

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"

BaumGeist ,

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

Bartsbigbugbag ,

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.

Zier ,
@Zier@fedia.io avatar

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.

7heo ,

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.

Sir_Kevin ,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Ya'll need FreeTube.

letsgo ,

Yal'l n'eed t'o lear'n a'bou't apo'str'phe pl'ac'em'en't'.

Hamartiogonic ,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

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.

velox_vulnus ,

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.

Million ,

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..

kinship ,

That was some William Gibson shit

Rez ,
@Rez@sh.itjust.works avatar

Youtube search results have been garbage for a while now :(

Sir_Kevin ,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Youtube Google search results have been garbage for a while now :(

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