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”

252 points

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.

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130 points
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47 points

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…

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14 points

That was some William Gibson shit

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7 points

that was amazing

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5 points

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

LINK

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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4 points

LOL, brilliant adaptation!

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28 points

They’re so brave.

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4 points

they are screwing it on purpose to make room for their AI

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3 points

That sounds familiar. Remember when we used to watch TV?

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4 points

Oh that thing where in between the ads you can watch low quality reality shows for a few minutes? Yeah, those were the days…

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3 points

tried watching a stone cold steve austin show once and had to stop because literally every 4 minutes there were ads. unwatchable

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118 points
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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

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31 points

I agree with him on right to repair and other rights issues but I can’t stand the guy. He’s incredibly abrasive and annoying. I’m interested in people who have interesting things to say. Long, angry rants about stuff I already agree with are just a waste of my time.

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7 points

I feel this, to an extent. I rather like the guy, I like what he stands for (for the most part, I don’t agree with his stance on at-will employment), but I don’t generally watch his videos for the same reason; angry preaching to the choir. I already agree, it’s mostly a waste of my time to watch.

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17 points

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.

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12 points
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It’s not that it’s broken by default, it’s that it’s broken deliberately. They don’t want you to just be able to find what you need and then leave, because that’s the civilized way of doing things, and they are GREEDY FUCKING BARBARIANS.

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2 points

Deliberately broken by default?

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1 point

Broken As Designed is generally broken by default, yes.

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108 points

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

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73 points

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

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10 points

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

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3 points

Yeah it’s hilarious that they show like 3 results and then completely unreleated videos inbetween. I can’t even begin to imagine how they thought this was a good idea. Why even have a search function if you’re going to be suggesting completely random videos either way.

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56 points

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.

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9 points

positive for me cause I dont want to see their shitty recommendations anyways. I just like/dislike a video to indicate I watched it.

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56 points

What I have noticed is that if you add “before:2025” (or any other future date) it doesn’t show the unrelated stuff.

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Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

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