Youtubian: Improve YouTube with a simple bookmarklet

Jan 29 10

BY: Locutus

VIEWS:

9 Comments

IN: Freeware Reviews, Tips 'n Tricks, Website Reviews

Have you ever looked at the YouTube interface and thought, "this could use a face lift"? Or perhaps you thought, "a download link and some fancy drop shadows would be nice". Well, then, let me introduce you to Youtubian.

Youtubian is a simple bookmarklet that can improve YouTube by cleaning up the interface, and adding a few extra handy features. For example, you can turn this...
...into this:

The Youtubian interface removes a lot of clutter, including the entire top bar, and adds a new search box that loads inside the current page. It also adds links to download the video and a nice drop shadow beneath the video. It includes the original video description and a counter of how much of the video is cached.

If you ever want to access the top bar again, just click "Expand" in the upper right corner and the old bar will appear. Do be warned, however, the top bar's links open in the current tab.

Since it is a bookmarklet, Youtubian will work with most all browsers as long as you have JavaScript enabled. Being a bookmarklet also means you will have to use click on it every time you visit YouTube. It also restarts the video that is loaded.) However, once you have Youtubian enabled, using the search function allows you to keep Youtubian activated for all videos you watch. All in all Youtubian can be a very handy tool.

You can grab Youtubian from its homepage. (To install drag the red "Youtubian" box to your bookmarks toolbar. To use it, click on it.)

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About the Author, Locutus:

Locutus is a random person who writes tech articles. He spends time on dotTech and Cogizio.

9 Responses to “ Youtubian: Improve YouTube with a simple bookmarklet ”

1

January 29 2010 at 7:15 PM

Sandeep

Thanks Ashraf.

Will try that.

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2

January 29 2010 at 7:23 PM

Locutus

@Sandeep: Erm, it was me- Locutus. Just sayin’. :D

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3

January 29 2010 at 8:49 PM

Yochanan

Good idea, but you’d have to click the bookmarklet every time you visited YouTube. The author says there will be a Greasemonkey script soon, however. I recommend YouTube Enhancer which provides a “Download Link + Quality Selector + Rollover Preview + Media Controller + Media Resizer + More…”

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4

January 29 2010 at 9:45 PM

Locutus

@Yochanan: Ahh, but does YouTube work in all major browsers excluding jokes… I mean Internet Explorer?
(Sorry to those who like IE)

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5

January 30 2010 at 12:13 AM

OldElmerFudd

Thanks, Locutus! i’ll give this one a try on the laptop. I love bookmarklets; zap colors, print what you like, and readability are my favs.

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6

January 30 2010 at 2:47 PM

Farrukh

Great :)

I really like this way of customization of YouTube. However Download Video feature is not working. May be it will work of some other video.

I tested in ChromePlus (Chromium) browser

I wonder if we can customize this with our own choices.

Thanks a lot Ashraf for bringing such useful thingy.

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7

January 30 2010 at 5:00 PM

Locutus

@Farrukh: Well it just grabs an external script so I’d say you can’t.
(And ‘scuse me, it was me that wrote this. Maybe I should start signing my posts?)

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8

January 30 2010 at 6:09 PM

Jyo

Nice article “Locutus” ^_^

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9

January 30 2010 at 6:35 PM

Locutus

@Jyo: Thanks, Jyo XD

Reply

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