This cross-browser web extension removes the following sections from Youtube search results:
- people also watched
- for you
- channels new to you
- previously watched
- shorts
This project uses vanilla JS, CSS, and HTML.
This extension now has cross-browser compatibility (tested with Chrome and Firefox). Separate instructions for both browsers are below:
You can clone the repo locally using git clone.
This article offers detailed instructions on loading an unpacked chrome extension. You can navigate to the chrome extensions page via the puzzle piece icon in the toolbar. Enable "developer mode" on the top-right. From there, you can click "load unpacked extension" and choose the folder via the popup. You should then see the blue play button icon appear in the toolbar. When you click on it, you can see "Better Youtube Search."
If you navigate to youtube.com and initiate a search, you'll no longer see the sections listed above for each search.
You can clone the repo using git clone. Then, you can download the .xpi file in the web-ext-artifacts folder and go to about:addons. If you click on the settings icon at the right, you should see a menu option to install an add-on from a file. Once you click that option, you can select the .xpi file in the window that appears. It should load successfully in the browser.
When you navigate to youtube.com, you may see a prompt to update the permissions for the extension. Even though youtube.com/results is included in host_permissions, users must manually enable these permissions. You can set the extension to work on youtube.com by default. Then, do a youtube search. You should no longer see the sections outlined above in the search results.
Before
BetterYoutubeSearchBefore-1.mov
After
BetterYoutubeSearchAfter2-1.mov
Long term I'd like to see if it's possible to hide irrelevant search items, like videos that are popular or videos that the user has already seen but aren't related to the current search term. At first glance it doesn't look possible to do this with the CSS alone, so I would want to do more research.