this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
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PurchaseWithPurpose

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This comes a month after YouTube Premium's price hike and the increase in adverts for free users.

You might want to switch browsers or use uBlock Origin.

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[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

"You might want to switch browsers" lmao why

[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

That's true but the DDG browser does not support extensions for Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android, so when you use it, you get what you get.

For Youtube viewing, the DDG browser is absolutely better than nothing, but speaking for myself YT is so shitty now that extensions are the only thing that make it watchable.

For me it's not just the ads, it's also being able to permanently filter out any channel that I never want to see again, blocking the sidebar and all its right-wing propaganda, blocking comments, etc.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal for me but a few years ago YT suddenly decided, based on nothing in reality that I personally know of, that all I wanted to see were zit popping videos. I do have history turned off, so who knows. Maybe it was a young relative, maybe I'd left my mouse on the wrong thing for too long, but jeeeeezus fucking christ I'd be eating dinner and change the video and suddenly a thumbnail of somebody with fucking Krakatoa about to explode off their face would be in the sidebar, one of many. A column of angry looking boils, blackheads, abscesses, more zit pics than a dermatologist's waiting room, all ready to blow. I'd arrange another window over the sidebar to watch the main video visually unmolested, but then I'd have to bring it forward to change it, and YT's like, "What, you don't like these? Here are even MORE we're sure you'll like!"

Hell to the fucking NO. So no extensions = no YouTube is how I roll now. No exceptions.

I've had good luck with uBlock Origin on both Firefox forks and Vivaldi for YT watching: they both support extensions, and though you have to use uBlock Origin Lite on chromium-based Vivaldi, that combined with Vivaldi's built in adblocking does the job and gives a perfect YT experience for me.

[–] Tenthrow@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I wish there was a way to block on set top box as well. Pi-Hole doesn't get it done for me.

[–] gir9862@lemmy.ca 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

If the box uses Android TV you can get SmartTube through a downloader app.

[–] phailhaus@piefed.social 6 points 19 hours ago

Blocks ads, shorts, has sponsorblock, can swap out thumbnails/titles to de-clickbait them, can limit stream codecs... SmartTube is a way better YouTube experience on the TV.

[–] switcheroo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Been using DDG for a while on my phone. It's pretty good!

[–] Quiet_Melvin@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Despite using DuckDuckGo as my primary search engine for awhile, this is the first I've heard of their web browser. Has anyone been convinced to make the switch?

[–] chmod755@feddit.org 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I just use SkyTube or LibreTube from F-Droid 👌

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

For me it's:

YouTube ReVanced - Mobile
Firefox w/Ublock Origin + Enhancer for YT + Return YT Dislike + SponsorBlock - Desktop
SmartTubeNext - TV