Tag: YouTube

Here is a theory for Google’s fight against adblockers on YouTube

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

You may have read about Google’s increased effort to block or limit adblockers on YouTube. Since adblocking is not a huge issue on mobile, Google’s fight has been mostly against desktop users.

Desktop users, be it on Windows, Linux, or Mac, have several options. They can install content blockers in their browsers to block ads. This is a common option, but far from the only one.

To name a few options:

  • Use a DNS-based adblocking solution.
  • Use a system-wide solution that blocks ads and other unwanted content, e.g., AdGuard.

Desktop and mobile users have other options at their disposal. Popular options include using YouTube frontends such as Invidious or YouTube third-party apps like NewPipe or SmartTube to watch videos without advertisement.

Google’s fight against adblockers intensifies

Google says that it is fighting the fight for content creators on YouTube. While it is true that content creators earn revenue when users watch ads on YouTube, it is also true that YouTube earns money every time as well.

This means that Google’s increased attack on adblocking serves both purposes. It does not end with it, though.

Any YouTube user who disables the adblocker on YouTube gets to see a lot of ads on the site. This can be quite the frustrating experience, especially if ads are shown in the middle of videos.

Here is a theory: Google makes ads on YouTube particularly obnoxious to sell YouTube Premium.

Clearly, YouTube Premium subscriptions offer advantages over ad-based revenue:

  • Subscription revenue is more reliable. It comes in every month, even if a customer does not watch a single second of videos on YouTube.
  • Subscription revenue is higher than the revenue that a user’s ad views generate.
  • If Google’s main advertising business is torpedoed, subscription revenue will continue.

It is in Google’s best interest therefore to sell subscriptions.

The problem with ads

While advertisement can be annoying, especially if too many ads are pushed, there are other reasons why many Internet users dislike them.

One of the main reasons is that they may be used by criminals and threat actors to attack users. Ads may try to convince users to download malware to their devices, open phishing websites, or buy junk status cryptocurrency.

Ads can be reported, but this reporting does not work too reliable. Scam ads may continue to be available even after they have been reported.

There is also the privacy component. Most ads use some form of tracking to increase the bottom line. While tracking will shift fundamentally once Google eliminates third-party cookies later this year, there will still be tracking.

What is your take on all of this? Do you use YouTube at all?

YT Channel Downloader review

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

YT Channel Downloader is an open source downloader for YouTube videos. It supports downloading individual videos and also entire channels or playlists. You can download it from its GitHub repository. It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS devices.

The program is based on yt-dlp, scrapetube, and pytube, but much easier to use.

The main interface is almost barebones. It features an URL field at the top. Paste YouTube URLs into the field and hit Fetch afterwards to get a list of found videos returned. Fetching may take a few seconds to complete.

Videos are listed with their name and link only. Other information, such as playtime or maximum resolution, are not shown.

From here, it takes two additional clicks to download all videos to the local system. Activate the “select all” button to check all videos, and hit the download button next to start the process.

You may also select individual videos to download only them, or enable audio conversions in the settings.

YT Channel Downloader

Before you start using the program, you may want to open File > Settings. Here you find just a few options:

  • Change the local download folder.
  • Enable conversion to audio files.
  • Set the preferred video format and quality.
  • Set the preferred audio format and quality.

Once set, the program runs almost on autopilot. It is a great way of quickly downloading videos for offline viewing. Ideal before you make a long trip, but also for safekeeping.

Tip: here is a method to download age-restricted YouTube videos without account.

Closing Words

YT Channel Download is an easy to use program. It makes the downloading of videos from YouTube channels or playlists almost effortlessly.

While that is great for getting things done quickly, it lacks options that other downloaders may support. There is no option to download subtitles or process videos in any way after download (other than converting them to audio).

Not everyone needs these options. If you just want a reliable mass downloader that is easy to use, this may be it.

The program worked reliably during tests. Fetching may take a while. It seems to depend on the channel or playlist that you want analyzed.

Invidious YouTube Playback error

YouTube: Google has found a way to break Invidious

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Update: A workaround is now available that fixes the issue.

If you use Invidious to access YouTube videos, you may have noticed that most (all?) instances are broken right now. Attempts to play YouTube videos are met with error messages.

Messages such as “the video returned by YouTube isn’t the requested one” are thrown by Invidious instances at the time.

A bug report on the official GitHub repository confirms the issue. Good news is that the team is aware of the issue. Bad, that there is no fix yet to address it.

YouTube search works on all instances, but videos won’t play anymore. You can try any of the listed Invidious instances or others, and you will likely get the same result.

The issue was reported three days ago on the GitHub project site.

Another popular YouTube frontend, Piped, appears affected as well. Attempts to play videos are met with the error code “failed with error code 1002”.

Google seems to have implemented changes to YouTube that break video playback functionality of the frontends. It is too early to say whether this can be fixed at all.

Google seems to be tightening access to YouTube in an effort to increase revenue and lock out alternatives. Privacy conscious users like these alternatives, as they include no ads or tracking.

It is quite possible that Google is going to lock down YouTube further in the future. It is probably only a matter of time. It is likely that existing alternatives and new alternatives will see huge user jumps when that happens.

Now You: do you watch videos on YouTube? Did you run into these issues?

YouTube try searching to get started

About YouTube’s Try searching to get started message

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

More and more YouTube users see the “Try searching to get started” message when they open the YouTube website. Usually, YouTube displays a list of recommended videos when users launch the site. What is displayed there depends on whether you are signed-in or not.

If you are signed-in, you see recommendations based on past searches, played videos, and also subscriptions. Users who are not signed-in see general recommendations instead.

It appears that Google is changing the YouTube experience for anonymous users. These see the aforementioned message when they load YouTube in a web browser.

In other words, YouTube suggests not a single video for users who are not signed in to the site.

While YouTube suggests to search for videos to help it generate a feed of recommended videos, it does not appear to work that way at the time of writing.

Even if you run searches and play videos, YouTube continues to show the message on its frontpage.

Some users may also see “Your YouTube history is off” instead, even though they are signed out.

A click on the update setting button opens the personalization settings & cookie page on YouTube. While it is possible to enable the YouTube history there, even if you are not signed in, it does not seem to have an effect.

YouTube displays the try searching to get started message after confirmation on the page.

The meaning of “Try searching to get started”

Google published no confirmation of the change at this point. It is clear that logged out users are affected by this.

It is another option to stop binging so much on YouTube, but not that helpful for users who want to see recommendations.

Google is already being criticized on Twitter, Reddit, and other sites for the change. The main point of criticism is that it appears that Google is pushing users to signing in to continue getting video recommendations.

Recommendations are also not shown in private browsing windows. It is unclear if this is an error on YouTube’s part or a deliberate rollout of the feature.

Since the proposed action, “searching”, does nothing at the time, it looks more like an error. Still, it is possible that this is the new default for users who are not signed-in to the site.

Closing Words

There is a good chance that logged out YouTube users will watch less content on the site. The constant barrage of recommendations stops, which leaves manual searches and related videos as the only option of exploration.

Google will likely post an official statement at one point. For now, it looks like a half-baked implementation of the change.

How to download age-restricted YouTube videos without account

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

YouTube publishers and YouTube may use age restrictions to limit a video’s accessibility on the website. Users get a “sign in to confirm your age” message when they try to open such a video on YouTube.

The most recent Xbox Developer Direct video is age restricted.

Age-restricted content does not violate YouTube’s community guidelines, but it may be “incompatible with YouTube’s terms of service or not appropriate for viewers under 18” according to Google.

Google gives a few examples of types of videos that may be age-restricted. This includes videos with violent or graphic content, nudity or sexually suggesting content, vulgar language, or videos with harmful or dangerous activities.

If you are an adult and have a Google account, you may sign-in to watch the video on YouTube. Not everyone has a Google account on the other hand or wants to sign-in to watch certain videos.

You find a tutorial on bypassing YouTube’s sign in to confirm your age prompt to watch the video in a browser. Another option that is available is to download the age restricted video to the local system to watch it in a local player instead.

Problem is, most download options do not work without a YouTube account. If you search for options to download YouTube videos that are age restricted, you find most tutorials still require that you sign-in to an account.

In this guide, I show you one option to download these YouTube videos. Note that this method is also limited, but it does not require an account.

Disclaimer: there are numerous ways to bypass YouTube’s age restricted prompt. Children should not use any of the methods to bypass them. With that said, the prompt won’t keep anyone from watching videos as it is not checking the “real age” of users accessing the content.

Download age-restricted YouTube videos without account

YouTube sign in to confirm your age

I tried several YouTube video downloaders and most do not support the downloading of age restricted content without YouTube or Google account.

Any Video Converter Free is the exception. It can download these videos, and any other video, from YouTube.

Note: the free version has one limitation. It limits downloads to a maximum quality of 720p. A paid version is available that lifts the restriction.

Here are the steps required to download these videos from YouTube:

  1. Install Any Video Converter Free on your Windows PC.
  2. Run the program after installation.
  3. Select Video Download on the startpage.
  4. Paste the video URL into the field that opens. You may add multiple videos.
  5. Click on the analyse button.
  6. Click on Start to being the download of the video. You may modify output settings here, but the best video quality that is available in the free version is already selected.
download YouTube video

You may now play the downloaded video in any compatible video player.

One effect of the downloading is that you do not have to worry about ads on YouTube.

youtube

Here is one way to stop binging on YouTube so much

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Look at those cute cats. Just one more video and I’m done for the day. Promise! One of the many appeals of YouTube is the site’s vast assortment of videos. There is probably nothing that you cannot watch on YouTube, with the exception of prohibited content of course. If you find a video you like, there is a good chance that hundreds, thousands or even more videos exist that are similar.

Google does a good job of pushing video recommendations to users. You get them on the startpage, while watching videos, and even after watching videos. Some vides may also autoplay after you finish watching a video. While it does not mean that these recommendations are great, they are not sometimes, they do parade new content in front of your eyes all the time.

In fact, you could probably spend the whole day on autopilot on YouTube without ever running out of something to watch.

Google knows that recommendations are key to keep users on the site. The more it knows about its users, the more likely it is that the next video may be of interest. Yes, YouTube gets it wrong at times.

I get a lot of Turkish video recommendations on YouTube, even though I do not speak the language and never watched a single Turkish video on the site. Still, most of the time, you get more of the same, which many users seem to like.

Binging may be a problem for some, especially if it keeps you from something more important. Some YouTube users seek for ways to limit binging on the site. While it may be easy for some, all it takes is to close the YouTube tab and that is that, it can be really difficult for others.

Read on to find out about one way that may help you with your binging on YouTube, at least a bit.

Stop binging on YouTube

YouTube stop binging

One of the ways that YouTube may get you is through recommendations on the homepage. Open the YouTube homepage and you will see a list of recommendations. YouTube uses the watch history to show recommendations. The main intent is to provide users with something new to watch. This keeps them on the site and Google earns money through video ads and other ads on the site.

If you turn off the watch history, and delete all watched items, then you won’t get any recommendations on YouTube’s homepage anymore. It is a simple option that does require a Google account.

You could create a simple Google account for that, if you don’t want to stay signed-in on YouTube.

Here is how you disable the watch history on YouTube:

  1. Open the YouTube website.
  2. Sign-in to a Google account, if you have not done so already.
  3. Activate the profile icon in the top right corner and select “Your data in YouTube”.
  4. Scroll down to YouTube controls.
  5. Check the “YouTube Watch History” status. If it reads on, click on the “on” line.
  6. On the page that opens, select “turn off”.
  7. An overlay with information opens. It tells you that you can only pause the history, not stop it entirely. Scroll down until the pause button becomes active and activate it.
  8. Select “Delete old activity” on the next page to delete information about previously watched videos.
  9. Select “all time” on the page that opens.
  10. Select “delete” on the next page to finally delete the information.
  11. Select “Got it” to go back to the main page.

When you go back to YouTube now, you should see no recommendations on the startpage.

You could also hide YouTube Shorts, especially if you do not find Shorts useful on the site, but happen to tune in from time to time anyway.

Closing Words

Obviously, not everyone may want to stay signed-in on YouTube just to limit binging on the video site. Working on self-control may also help. You could, for instance, make sure that everything else is done already before launching YouTube.

Another option that you have is to download YouTube videos instead of watching them online. Use a program like Vividl and download the video that interests you. You can play it locally then and do not get any recommendations while playing the video or afterwards.

Now You: do you binge on something?

YouTube Slow

Is YouTube slow? Your adblocker may be the reason

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google implemented a change recently that makes YouTube slow for some users. This is not a bug, but a deliberate action by Google to punish visitors that use adblockers.

It is quite easy to find out. Visit YouTube and check what happens. If you stare at a blank page for seconds, then you’ve experienced Google’s punishment first hand.

The code is rather simplistic. You can break it down to 1) check for adblocker and 2) delay loading by 5 seconds if an adblocker is found.

It is interesting to note that this may also affect YouTube Premium subscribers. YouTube Premium subscribers do not see ads on the site. They pay a monthly subscription fee for that. If YouTube Premium subscribers have an adblocker installed, loading will be delayed as well.

Google wants you to disable the adblocker on the site. While this speeds up the loading of YouTube, it also enables ads on the site. Not a problem for YouTube Premium subscribers, who may try this to resolve the slow loading issue.

Thankfully though, there are some options to speed up YouTube without disabling adblockers on the site.

Options to fix YouTube’s slowness

Option 1: new filter

Brave custom filter to speed up YouTube

This is one of the easier options. You add a new custom filter to your adblocker and YouTube should load faster again. Most adblockers support custom filters, but some may not.

Here is the filter:

youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.web_enable_ab_rsp_cl, false)

Add this filter to your content blocker, e.g., uBlock Origin or Brave Browser, restart the browser and YouTube should load fast again.

Here is how you add the filter to Brave Browser:

  1. Click on the Shield icon in the Brave address bar.
  2. Select Filter lists.
  3. Scroll down on the page that opens and paste the new filter into the “create custom filters” field.
  4. Select save changes.
  5. Restart Brave.

This is the way if you use uBlock Origin:

  1. Select the uBlock Origin icon in the browser’s toolbar.
  2. Activate the “open the dashboard” button.
  3. Switch to the “My filters” tab.
  4. Paste the line into the field on the page.
  5. Select “apply changes”
  6. Restart the browser.

Option 2: Frontends or third-party clients

This is another option. Instead of using YouTube directly in a browser or the official apps, you’d use a frontend in the browser or a third-party app.

Check out my guide on bypassing ads on YouTube without adblockers for a list of suggestions.

The main difference between a frontend and an app is simple:

  • Frontends — can be opened in any browser. They work like the YouTube website in the browser for the most part. Some features, for instance some that may require a YouTube account, may not work.
  • Third-party apps — these install on mobile devices. Run them instead of the dedicated YouTube app or the YouTube website. They may also have limitations.

Video playback and searches work in all instances.

Option 3: switch to extensions that skip or speed-up ads

This type of extension is relatively new. It does not block ads on YouTube, but it either skips them, if supported, or fast forwards them.

Install an extension like Ad Speedup to use the functionality. You need to disable your adblocker on YouTube and the new extension will take over for it.

Closing Words

A cat and mouse game is going on between Google and adblock users. Google seems dedicated to make the life of adblock users as miserable as possible, at least where it comes to interactions with YouTube. Adblock users, on the other hand, need to find new ways to deal with those.

Now You: do you use an adblocker YouTube on?

video

Vividl: download videos from hundreds of sites on Windows

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Vividl – Video Downloader is an open source tool for Microsoft Windows devices to download videos from hundreds of websites. The app uses the popular downloader youtube-dl / yt-dlp in the background. It supports downloads of video or audio files from hundreds of sites.

Most video streaming sites do not want you to download videos. Prime reason for this is monetization as offline videos cannot be monetized. Some services support video downloads, but often only as premium features. Google’s YouTube, for example, supports downloads, but restricts them to YouTube Premium subscribers.

There are quite a few reasons why you may want to download videos. Here is a short list:

  • To watch the video (later) when there is no Internet connection or no reliable Internet connection.
  • To watch a higher quality version of the video, which the Internet connection is incapable of streaming.
  • To watch videos without ads. Tip: you may bypass YouTube video ads without adblockers.
  • To listen to the audio of a video only.
  • For backup purposes.

Vividl: the basics

Vividl Video Downloader interface

You may download the latest version of the video downloader from its GitHub project website. The app runs on Windows 7 and newer versions of the operating system.

The developer lists two dependencies: .NET Framework 4.8 or higher, and Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. Downloads for both are linked on the project website, if needed.

Windows may throw a SmartScreen error when you try to install it. The app checked out fine on Virustotal, which suggests that this is thrown only because it is a new version.

The main program interface looks basic, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Add a video by pasting its URL into the interface or through drag & drop. An auto import from Clipboard option is provided.

Vividl picks it up and displays information about it after a brief moment.

The main interface acts as the download queue but also download list. There is no option to separate these, which would help manage larger lists of videos.

Downloading videos

Vividl video and audio quality

All videos added to the video downloader are listed in the queue by default. Several download-related options are displayed there.

The default output format is mp4 video and a default quality is selected. Both options are customizable. Vividl supports webm, avi and mkv formats on the video site next to mp4.

A click on the tool icon, which is adjacent to the format button, displays all available video and audio qualities. Here you may select the desired output format and quality manually. You may need to scroll to find specific options, as the lists are not necessarily sorted by size or resolution.

There are options to download video and audio files separately, or just one of the two formats.

The downloading happens in the background. Vividl downloads three files simultaneously by default. You can change this in the program settings.

The settings list several interesting options, some of which automate the experience. Here is a short list of important options:

  • Change the default video resolution and video format. The defaults are mp4 and 1080p.
  • Always download the best quality.
  • Enable GPU acceleration for video encoding, if supported.
  • Instead of overwriting existing media, skip it or rename it.

Verdict

Vividl is a straightforward video downloader for Windows. It supports hundreds of video sites and works really well. Both manual and automatic options work reliable.

To conclude, if you need a well-designed video downloader, this is a program that you may want to test. I still prefer Internet Download Manager, but this is a commercial program that supports video downloads and also other file downloads.

Video creator

Grayjay: follow video creators on multiple platforms

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Grayjay is a new application for Google Android devices to follow video creators on multiple platforms.

Depending on how active you are when it comes to streaming media, you may know that many video creators publish content to different platforms. A basic example is a Twitch streamer who also publishes some footage on YouTube.

Keeping up with just a single creator may require following them on different platforms. Follow more and add more platforms and it can get complicated quickly.

Grayjay set out to fix this. It supports a good number of platforms already. Besides YouTube and Twitch, Grayjay supports PeerTube, Odysee, Kick, Patreon, Rumble, Nebula and SoundCloud. Support for Subscribestar is under development already and there is a good chance that more platforms are added in the future.

The app does not require an account. Since it supports the downloading of videos, it is not available on Google Play. You may download it for Android from the developer website.

One effect of using Grayjay is that you can watch videos without ads. While you can block ads on YouTube and other platforms, it is another benefit of using the app.

Using Grayjay

Grayjay

YouTube is the only source by default. You may change that with a click on Sources and the selection of one or multiple sources. All of these are shown in the main interface. The developer notes that adding more sources may impact loading times, as videos from different platforms need to be loaded.

Tap on any video to play it right then and there in Grayjay. This is useful already, especially since Grayjay supports a queue, custom playlists and watch later functionality. The option to download any video is also provided. The downloads menu lists options to change the quality of the video before downloading it.

The main feature of Grayjay is its follow option. You may subscribe (follow) on any video page or by selecting the channel name. Options to enable notifications and follow only streams or videos are provided.

You need to subscribe to sources individually. There is no option at the moment to select a creator and follow them on all platforms that they publish or stream on.

Still, this is one time process to follow creators on multiple platforms. You may create groups for subscriptions to improve organization. Options include creating groups for individual creators or themed groups based on interests.

The app supports imports and exports of data. This allows you to share subscriptions across multiple devices or migrate subscriptions to new devices.

Verdict

Grayjay appears to be free to use at the moment. The app is open source and you may access the source on Gitlab. There is a “buy” link under “more” in the app that is asking for a payment of €9.99 plus tax. Several developers work fulltime on the app according to the page. The developers hope that enough users find their app useful to pay for it and make it sustainable.

Grayjay works well already. It would benefit from additional features, including the ability to follow a creator on all platforms with just a tap. While that may be difficult to automate, it could maintain a database of developer accounts on various platforms and use crowdsourcing to maintain it.

All in all, it is an interesting app that shows a lot of promise.

YouTube

How to remove YouTube Shorts permanently

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

YouTube Shorts is an integral part of YouTube and very similar to videos on TikTok. Not every YouTube user likes the short video format and some may find it outright annoying.

There are several ways to remove the entire Shorts section and all Shorts videos from YouTube. Removing in this regard refers to hiding YouTube Shorts on the website. There are also tweaks for removing YouTube Shorts on mobile devices.

YouTube Shorts example

You have several options to remove YouTube Shorts:

  • Add a set of filters to content blockers.
  • Use a third-party YouTube frontend instead of the official website or app.
  • Install another browser extension that hides Shorts.

Using filters to disable Shorts on YouTube

One of the better options at your disposal is to add a set of filters to a content blocker. Most Internet users do not use content blockers. Designed primarily to block ads and prevent tracking, many content blockers support options to hide elements on websites.

Did you know that you may bypass ads on YouTube without an adblocker?

Probably the best content blocker extension right now is uBlock Origin (Chromium-based or Firefox). You may add the filters to other content blockers, provided that they support filters. Please note that you should never run multiple content blockers at the same time, as this may lead to all sorts of issues.

The filter list that you need to add to uBlock Origin is maintained on the Let’s Block It website. Your best option is to visit the linked webpage and click on the copy option to copy the entire list to the Clipboard.

Note: the list is updated when YouTube makes changes to Shorts. This is the reason why it is not pasted here.

Open the Dashboard of uBlock Origin to add the filters. Note that the icon may be hidden under an extension icon in the browser’s toolbar.

Switch to My Filters in the Dashboard. Here you find all custom filters added to the content blocker.

Paste the entire content of the Clipboard into the field. The instructions remove Shorts entirely from YouTube.

Remove YouTube Shorts

Complete the process with a click on the “apply changes” button at the top.

Visit YouTube, you may need to reload the website if already open, to test the filters. All Shorts content should no longer be visible on YouTube thanks to the filters.

Third-party YouTube frontends

Another option is to use frontends for YouTube. Good news is that these are available on desktop and mobile devices.

Frontends offer most of YouTube’s experience. You may watch any video posted on YouTube. Additional features, such as the option to download YouTube videos, may also be supported.

Here is a list of recommendations:

  • Invidious — A frontend for YouTube that is used by websites and also apps. There is no Shorts section on Invidious. Since it is web-based, you may access it from any device with a web browser.
  • NewPipe — NewPipe is an application for Android. It is updated regularly and supports a wide range of features. Besides watching videos in up to 4K, it also supports live streams, shorts, downloads and more. One of its features is the option to hide content that you are not interested in. You may use hide Shorts in NewPipe.

Using browser extensions

If you prefer to use standalone extensions, you may check out the Hide YouTube Shorts extension. This extension is available for Google Chrome, Firefox and other Chromium-based browsers.

Note that most Chromium-based browsers support extensions only on desktop and not on mobile.

Download the extension for Chrome / Chromium or Firefox, and you are all set. It removes YouTube Shorts automatically once installed.

Closing Words

You either like or dislike Shorts, there seems to be no middle ground in regards to the feature. While there is no native option to disable Shorts on YouTube, there are plenty of options to remove the content from the video hosting site.