This is a welcome output, it is quite tiring to be stuck on Youtube for hours.
Anything that can:
- break the algorithm
- help reduce time on there
- discover organically
Would have a huge product market fit.
We are all zonked from the algorithm saturation.
One thing I recently started doing is use the before: search filter
ex) playthroughs before: 2010
I think its really neat that we've had Youtube for such a long time its become sort of a Archive.org on its own
I especially take great joy in watching people with low subscriber count or Youtube videos from before 2015
I feel like that was the inflection point where you just had a lot of freedom to speak your mind without the permanently online crowd getting offended by everything.
Yes, I 100% agree with you. Thank you for bringing it up.
And date filter: that is a fun way to use YouTube. The search tab in NoSuggest lets you search for specific videos without recommendations creeping in around them, so you can do that kind of intentional digging. Date filtering isn't there though. And the feed only shows the latest 5 videos per channel so it won't surface older content.
I like watching streams from a few authors, but I'm not interested in their videos. Your website now shows only videos. Could you also add streams? And it would also be useful to have a setting for hiding streams and videos - for people like me.
Another point: it would make sense to be able to access all videos from a channel rather than the last five videos.
And a small thing: the channels in the Channels tab are not clickable - seems counterintuitive.
Thank you for the detailed feedback. Really useful.
On streams: I never thought about it as an use-case. Thank you for bring it up. Will look into it.
Showing 5 videos/channel is intentional. Idea is to only surface latest videos and not re-create a scroll feed like Youtube. But if I get more feedback from users that it is too restrictive then I can easily make it to recent 10 or 15 videos. What do you feel as an appropriate number of recent videos per channel is?
Good catch on the channels tab. Currently it just manages your list. Tapping a channel to jump to their feed section is a neat idea though, will look into adding it.
You're welcome! Thanks for considering changes based on my suggestions.
I think 5 videos per channel is an appropriate limit. I understand what you want to achieve with this. But suppose I want to watch an older video from the same channel. A simple 'Expand' button would do the trick. Otherwise I'd have to go to YouTube which I wanted to avoid in the first place.
And I think you don't have to stick to a certain number of videos as the only type of limit. How about showing as many videos as would fit within the width of the window?
This is exactly what I have been looking for. It's way too easy to get lost in the auto-suggested videos and shorts on YouTube. It was also always a hassle keeping up a local Invidious instance up and running in my homelab.
Thank you so much for creating this! I'll try it out for a few days and provide feedback.
- I'd recommend adding a way to add multiple channels at once. The current workflow works great for adding a single channel, but it was tedious to add more than one channel. I imagine most people using this service will add many channels at the beginning.
- I'd like to be able to keep the same channel selections on multiple devices. Accounts and/or sync would probably be a lot of overhead to implement. Maybe some kind of unique link that contains a list of channels, like how PCPartPicker creates unique links for each build?
- Someone else mentioned this, and I'd like to +1 it - clicking the channel in the Channels section does nothing, when I'd expect it to show the channel's videos.
In the same vein, there is the "tournesol"[0] browser extension, which plugs its own recommandation algorithm into YouTube, to promote educational videos
I made a podcast feed from YT with podsync so that I can take videos on the go. I use the playlist feature to pull them down. this feels like a great way for me to pull out only select videos. a direct way to put vids on a feed would be great, but understand if that doesnt make any sense. thanks for putting it together.
an option for no thumbnails, or just the first screen instead ot thumbnails + lower case titles also helps lower the lizard brain pull even further.
If you would like to keep the native youtube.com experience, in addition to disabling the watch history, which gets rid of the first screen recommendations, you can also use a filter list such as https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/YouTub....
I use it with AdGuard and it not only blocks the side cards of video recommendations on what to watch next, it also blocks comments which can be an endless pit of doomscrolling on its own.
This way if you want to watch a video the only way to do so its to search for it, otherwise you won't ever get anything else recommended to you.
Interesting. But it won't work with mobiles i believe. Which is were real doom scrolling would happen. NoSuggest installs just like a native app and do the job of YouTube app without algorithms.
What are the biggest differences between this and going into your google settings to disable history/recommendations? I personally feel like that works well, on all platforms and removes shorts as well.
Yeah, I tried that too. But when I watch a video of the channel I like, there will be unending side cards of videos suggesting what to watch next. There are so many ways YouTube tries to keep you on their platform.
And one more benefit that NoSuggest will not have as much ads as YouTube. Although I am using YouTube official player, meaning they could serve ads but definitely would be far less than what you see in YouTube app.
Great idea, but requires learning a new UI, doesn't fetch "streams"...
In any case, it's great to see the family of FBPurity and Antigram being joined by a new tool.
>I would love genuine feedback. Thank you very much for your attention on this matter
Maybe a harsh thing to say, but I'd say that the approach is wrong. I think that the approach by FBPurity and Antigram is more practical. Just hook into the website itself, hide the dopamine-production inducing elements, such as "shorts", hide recommendations, but keep the UI the same.
Fair critique. The browser extension approach works well on desktop but does not work on mobile at all, which is exactly where the algorithm does the most damage. That's the gap NoSuggest is filling.
Yeah, I tried that too. But when I watch a video of the channel I like, there will be unending side cards of videos suggesting what to watch next. There are so many ways YouTube tries to keep you on their platform.
And one more benefit that NoSuggest will not have as much ads as YouTube. Although I am using YouTube official player, meaning they could serve ads but definitely would be far less than what you see in YouTube app.
This is fantastic, I've been using the DF youtube browser extension for a while but will definitely start using this. It's great there's no accounts or sign-up needed.
Yes, it is using RSS feeds per channel and also there are multiple fallbacks built. NoSuggest is a curated experience just like YouTube but without algorithm recommendations.
hi, my feedback is that I would like to be able to create an account, because I have my browser (Firefox) set to always clear all cookies and history on shutdown, so when I re-open this later I assume all my added channels would be lost, and would need to start from scratch. If it wasn't for that, I think it's great and would use it.
Hey Seirim, totally valid concern. The app uses localStorage so yes, clearing cookies/history on shutdown would wipe your channels. Accounts are off the table for now since the whole point is zero sign-in friction and zero data collection. But if it helps, you can download the PWA app to your mobile and use it. Thank you very much!
Hoping NoSuggest would be useful to you in any ways.
Ok, there must be a way, though, just encrypt the personal channels chose with the user's password so you don't know what they have chosen, and don't track anything? And I think most people aren't too worried about it being known what their favorite 10 channels are, for example, yeah? And if you don't track what they actually watch at all, that info isn't very interesting.
That is a fair point and I hear you. The encrypted account idea is interesting. How about an export/import feature where you can save your channel list as a file and reload it anytime, or even a shareable link that encodes your channels in the URL like PCPartPicker does with builds. It would be faster than login. And no account creation and no tracking as promised. Would that solve your problem?
Yes that would be cool. Just generally I'd say I'm ok with making accounts for 1000 other things that are a lot higher stakes info than my favorite youtube channels. But if it becomes a bookmark or something saveable than ok cool maybe that works.
If you manually disable persistence for a website you shouldn't complain that there is no persistence. It's not other people's job to workaround limitations you yourself setup. Consider having your setup clearing data for this specific site if you want that data to persist.
I'm not complaining, I'm giving feedback to a creator that might help them be aware of some user situation they hadn't considered. A lot of people clear their browser cache at some point (I would hope) and would lose all the settings they put into this app and therefore lose all the progress they made in their setup, and it would be frustrating for them, not just me.
Interesting idea but that moves it away from being a zero install web app which is core to what NoSuggest is. The PWA angle is the whole point, especially for mobile.
I feel this would have more success if you use 1:1 (or very close) the actual Youtube template. Many have attempted "clones" and so-on, never really understood why it doesn't look the SAME, that way there is no switching curve.
all these projects and im thinking about making the opposite, alternate feeds for bluesky designed to make it as addictive as legacy social media. imo thats the only way we can get everyone to switch.
Sorry, it won't work like a YouTube app in TV. But if you can install a browser to your smart TV and access the URL then it will work just like in laptop.
FreeTube is great but it is a desktop app you have to install. NoSuggest works on any device straight from the browser, especially mobile where nothing else really works. Give it a go and let me know what you think please. Looking forward for your valuable feedback.
I find youtube, but also netflix, prime, Spotify etc some of the weirdest things in tech; for me they all are complete shite. How is it possible? I vote up and down stuff; how can I vote down sappy drama and then get recommended the same drama the next refresh? How can it recommend movies, shows, clips I JUST watched? How does any of this not lead to frustration? I was listening to a generated playlist at a small dinner party and it put in music I literally down voted and hate. There are 1000s of people working at these companies ; I don't know why more than 1 dev and Claude code are working at netflix in IT as it's just complete garbage. Maybe someone can explain it here.
It is same exact feeling I have with YouTube. Although I used YouTube more than any other streaming platforms. That frustration is exactly what NoSuggest is trying to fix, at least for YouTube. No algorithm, no recommendations, no suggestions. Just the channels you chose. Give it a try.
The answer is quite simple, even if not satisfying:
- recommendations take time to re-calculate
- downvotes are not a global exclusion filter
There are a lot of approaches to recommendations, and I imagine the biggest players having a mix of them, so that _something_ sticks. Some of them might rely on data / features / models which are recalculated "once every X", so they don't react immediately to your input.
There's also patterns which are normal to some people but seem insane to others: "oh, I've liked this show so much I watched it 3 times!".
No, the name itself is NoSuggest. Not suggesting anything. Just a platform to watch Youtube videos of your choice and nothing else. Please try it out and provide feedback. Thank you.
I like the idea of making YouTube feel intentional again instead of turning every video into the start of another rabbit hole. One thing I’d love to see is a way to separate “learning” channels from “background entertainment” channels, since I use YouTube very differently depending on the mood.
That's a nice idea for future enhancement. But for now, if in case you use different devices for different purpose like laptop for learning and mobile for background entertainment then both devices can have their own list of channels completely separate.
I highly appreciate you using the app. Please provide your feedback. Thank you.
For the sync issue without an account, a simple JSON export/import, or generating a Base64 string as a custom URL parameter would work perfectly. Seamless cross-device sync while keeping the zero-data-collection promise.
That's really good idea which I am getting multiple times from Show HN post. Never thought about it before. Would definitely do it next. Thank you very much!
Anything that can:
- break the algorithm
- help reduce time on there
- discover organically
Would have a huge product market fit. We are all zonked from the algorithm saturation.
One thing I recently started doing is use the before: search filter
ex) playthroughs before: 2010
I think its really neat that we've had Youtube for such a long time its become sort of a Archive.org on its own
I especially take great joy in watching people with low subscriber count or Youtube videos from before 2015
I feel like that was the inflection point where you just had a lot of freedom to speak your mind without the permanently online crowd getting offended by everything.
And date filter: that is a fun way to use YouTube. The search tab in NoSuggest lets you search for specific videos without recommendations creeping in around them, so you can do that kind of intentional digging. Date filtering isn't there though. And the feed only shows the latest 5 videos per channel so it won't surface older content.
Another point: it would make sense to be able to access all videos from a channel rather than the last five videos.
And a small thing: the channels in the Channels tab are not clickable - seems counterintuitive.
On streams: I never thought about it as an use-case. Thank you for bring it up. Will look into it.
Showing 5 videos/channel is intentional. Idea is to only surface latest videos and not re-create a scroll feed like Youtube. But if I get more feedback from users that it is too restrictive then I can easily make it to recent 10 or 15 videos. What do you feel as an appropriate number of recent videos per channel is?
Good catch on the channels tab. Currently it just manages your list. Tapping a channel to jump to their feed section is a neat idea though, will look into adding it.
I think 5 videos per channel is an appropriate limit. I understand what you want to achieve with this. But suppose I want to watch an older video from the same channel. A simple 'Expand' button would do the trick. Otherwise I'd have to go to YouTube which I wanted to avoid in the first place.
And I think you don't have to stick to a certain number of videos as the only type of limit. How about showing as many videos as would fit within the width of the window?
Thank you so much for creating this! I'll try it out for a few days and provide feedback.
- I'd recommend adding a way to add multiple channels at once. The current workflow works great for adding a single channel, but it was tedious to add more than one channel. I imagine most people using this service will add many channels at the beginning.
- I'd like to be able to keep the same channel selections on multiple devices. Accounts and/or sync would probably be a lot of overhead to implement. Maybe some kind of unique link that contains a list of channels, like how PCPartPicker creates unique links for each build?
- Someone else mentioned this, and I'd like to +1 it - clicking the channel in the Channels section does nothing, when I'd expect it to show the channel's videos.
Other than that, I love it! Great work!
[0]: https://tournesol.app/
an option for no thumbnails, or just the first screen instead ot thumbnails + lower case titles also helps lower the lizard brain pull even further.
I use it with AdGuard and it not only blocks the side cards of video recommendations on what to watch next, it also blocks comments which can be an endless pit of doomscrolling on its own.
This way if you want to watch a video the only way to do so its to search for it, otherwise you won't ever get anything else recommended to you.
In any case, it's great to see the family of FBPurity and Antigram being joined by a new tool.
>I would love genuine feedback. Thank you very much for your attention on this matter
Maybe a harsh thing to say, but I'd say that the approach is wrong. I think that the approach by FBPurity and Antigram is more practical. Just hook into the website itself, hide the dopamine-production inducing elements, such as "shorts", hide recommendations, but keep the UI the same.
Both work, even though they require turning on "desktop mode to be full-featured (even though even on mobile versions some features wotk).
And one more benefit that NoSuggest will not have as much ads as YouTube. Although I am using YouTube official player, meaning they could serve ads but definitely would be far less than what you see in YouTube app.
For people already using RSS feed readers, this is another way to achieve the same result (i do that with miniflux)
Hoping NoSuggest would be useful to you in any ways.
I think a better angle to push for is having accounts so that data can be shared among multiple devices.
Where? I couldn't find any link to the source on the website.
There are a lot of approaches to recommendations, and I imagine the biggest players having a mix of them, so that _something_ sticks. Some of them might rely on data / features / models which are recalculated "once every X", so they don't react immediately to your input.
There's also patterns which are normal to some people but seem insane to others: "oh, I've liked this show so much I watched it 3 times!".
I highly appreciate you using the app. Please provide your feedback. Thank you.