YouTweak enhances YouTube functionalities

Alan Buckingham
May 2, 2013
Music and Video, Youtube
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2

There seems to be no end to ways of tweaking YouTube and Ghacks has looked at a number of them over the years -- many of them are accomplished through user scripts. Scripts can be run through TamperMonkey if you are using Chrome as your web browser or GreaseMonkey if you prefer Firefox as your browser of choice.

Now add one more way of tweaking YouTube to the list. This one, though, is not a user script, but instead an extension for Chrome. YouTweak is available in the Chrome Web Store, and it adds a number of enhancements to the online video service.

Enhancements:

  • Remove subscription videos
  • Remove watched videos
  • Make subscription links HD
  • Make subscriptions the default page
  • Stop auto-play
  • Load all subscription videos

When the extension is first installed you will be prompted to visit the options menu. From here you get a simple list of all of the changes you can make to YouTube. Each change has a radio button to the left and a brief description of what will happen if you choose to enable it by clicking on that button. By default, all options are turned off. The plugin allows each individual to pick and choose what he or she wishes to enable. You are not forced into any particular change.

The default YouTube URL can be edited to whichever page you wish -- a particular channel, for instance. By default, it is set up to go to http://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions. removing watched videos also comes with choices. The user can enable a button to get a choice with each video or set this to automatic. Other settings are more straight-forward, being either set to on or off.

Here are all settings it makes available:

  • Removal button next to each video from your subscriptions to hide them.
  • Change the YouTube icon link at the top.
  • Automatically removed watched videos
  • Always play subscription videos in the highest possible video quality (up to 720p right now).
  • Disable YouTube's auto-play feature so that videos are not playing when you load a video page but are still buffered.
  • Removed all subscription videos from the homepage.
  • Load all subscription videos on the homepage.

Conclusion

The author has been using this extension for himself for sometime, but only recently decided to release it to the Chrome Store. "I have been coding for the past 5 years and throughout that time I have been an avid creator and consumer of YouTube content. The reason for making this extension was to improve my experience when using YouTube and I have finally decided to submit this to the Chrome extension store in the hopes that it will aid you in the same way".

The fact that each setting is separate and that none are pushed off on the user, but simply allow for the option to use them, makes this an excellent choice. Each individual can make their own decision based on personal tastes.

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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on May 2, 2013 at 12:52 pm
    Reply

    Sounds awesome, shame it’s not also available for Firefox.

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