YouTube is easily the biggest video streaming service, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Here are some of the best ways to make YouTube even better.
We’ve already covered how to fix all of your biggest YouTube annoyances, and some of the best URL-based tricks and services you can use with YouTube. Today, we’re going to take it a step further by tailoring YouTube to your viewing habits and make it more enjoyable to use.
Mini Player Lets You Watch While You Browse
Who has time for sitting and watching a single YouTube video when there’s a whole internet full of things waiting for your attention? If you want to keep watching videos while you browse, Mini Player allows you to pop a video down to the lower-right corner of your display and keep it visible above whatever you’re working on. You can also use this player for Vimeo or Facebook videos.
Tubalr Turns YouTube Into A Music Player
YouTube is one of the best music sites around. Previously mentioned Tubalr capitalises on this by creating playlists of music videos sorted by artist; you can also sign up to create your own playlists or get song recommendations. It’s not quite perfect as a music player, but as an interface for the music on YouTube, it definitely beats the normal UI.
Turn Off The Lights Dims The Screen
YouTube’s default layout is a big, bright, white background with a little video box at the top. For casual viewing, that’s fine, but if you’d rather curl up in the evening with a video playlist without blinding yourself, Turn Off The Lights will dim the rest of the page for a more cinematic aesthetic.
Video Pinner Lets You Keep Watching As You Scroll
What’s the most important part of any YouTube page? The video, of course! While you might be interested in the comments or related videos, you probably want to keep watching. Video Pinner keeps the video at the top of the window as you scroll down the page. It’s a little detail, but it makes watching YouTube much less of a chore.
Playjack Takes YouTube To The Big Screen
Sitting at your desk, the normal YouTube interface is OK. Previously mentioned Playjack offers a bigger, more visual interface. The design eschews text-heavy descriptions and stats for giant thumbnails and a TV-friendly aesthetic. You can also easily add videos to its “infinite streaming” playlist. Set the sequence and let it play!
jiffy Creates Animated GIFs On The Fly
There are roughly twelve million different tools for creating animated GIFs from video, but jiffy makes the process dead simple. Once you install the extension, you’ll be able to enter the start and end times of a video directly on YouTube. Click “Make GIF” and the extension will automatically trim the video and give you a link to an animated GIF. The quality is a little low, but it’s hard to beat the speed.
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