Youtubian: Improve YouTube with a simple bookmarklet

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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