Show HN: I made a YouTube search form with advanced filters

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Scope of the Tool

  • The site is essentially a UI for YouTube’s “hidden” search operators (e.g., date constraints) and standard filters.
  • Supporters see value in surfacing these options and avoiding Shorts and “people also watched” slop in results.
  • Critics argue it’s just URL/query-string generation that YouTube already supports and call it redundant or trivial.
  • Some question the lack of source code and dismiss it as low-value or “vaporware.”

General Dissatisfaction with YouTube Search

  • Many comments say YouTube search has deteriorated:
    • Returns 2–7 relevant results, then switches to generic recommendations, Shorts, “people also watched,” “previously watched,” etc.
    • Often fails to find specific videos even with exact titles or quotes.
    • Search within watch history is described as especially bad.
  • Others say search works fine for their use cases (trailers, common tutorials, familiar channels) and don’t see the problem.

Removed / Hidden Features and Operators

  • Loss of “sort by upload date” in UI and API is widely lamented; users see this as the final blow to usable search.
  • Date operators (before:, after:) still work but are reported as inconsistent, especially for “current events” queries.
  • Some users note that quotes and other advanced operators (on YouTube and Google) are now often ignored or overridden.
  • Users share CSS/uBlock rules and extensions to strip out “related to your search,” “for you,” Shorts, etc.

Subscriptions and Discovery

  • Subscriptions feed is described as “enshittified”: new “relevant/priority” rows, Shorts, and mixed ordering break pure chronological viewing.
  • Various workarounds are mentioned: browser extensions to restore chronological feeds and hide Shorts, RSS feeds per channel, external sites that rebuild subscription feeds, and CLI tools using the subscriptions URL.

Third‑Party Tools & Alternatives

  • Multiple extensions and apps are cited to:
    • Expose hidden filters, block ads/sponsors, hide recommendations, and fix search.
    • Provide frontends (FreeTube, NewPipe, others) or local archives (Tube Archivist, yt-dlp).
  • Reliability of these tools is mixed; some are subject to YouTube’s ongoing changes.

Broader Critique of Google / YouTube

  • Many see this as part of wider “enshittification”: engagement and recommendation metrics trump relevance and user intent.
  • Comparisons are drawn to degraded search in Google, Gmail, Amazon, and streaming services.
  • A minority argues the deeper cause is content being optimized for browse/viral traffic rather than search intent; others counter that search itself is now deliberately hostile.

Desired Missing Features

  • Frequently requested but (apparently) unavailable capabilities:
    • Filter by video language or subtitle language.
    • More granular duration and quality (e.g., specific minutes, 60fps, >X minutes).
    • Robust search within a channel (especially on mobile).
    • Search within transcripts, liked/watched history, and better ways to exclude spammy titles (e.g., with emojis).