Vinegar also removes ads.
The extension has some downsides too, but overall it rids YouTube videos of all their usual annoyances.
But how did it come to this?
Zhenyi Tan
Flash Flashback
RememberYouTube 5?
It was a custom-designed HTML5 player to replace the Flash-based players used for video playback in the early 2000s.
Its problem was that it was absurdly inefficient.
And a Dinosaur / Zhenyi Tan
Flash was so bad that Apple never supported it on iOS because it was just too battery-hungry.
YouTube isnt really as bad as Flash, at least not yet.
Now, were used to our browsers having built-in video players, which wasnt the case back then.
But YouTubes player has become so annoying and bloated that an intervention is required.
Vinegar replaces any video player with a simple, built-in player.
It even works on YouTube videos embedded on other sites.
The only downside is Vinegar doesnt allow play/pause with the spacebar, though thatscoming in the next update.
A Moral Quandary
YouTube isn’t really as bad as Flash, at least not yet.
It doesn’t kill your battery when using it, for example.
But in many ways, it’s anti-user.
But those ads pay the creators, so isn’t it morally wrong to block them?
“The only way creators get paid is from ad revenue.
YouTubes player has become so annoying and bloated that an intervention is required.
YouTube pays around half of its ad revenue to the creators, so blocking ads is a big deal.
On the other hand, too many ads can put people off altogether.
But aside from the ads, the YouTube experience is, to be charitable, a little overloaded.
Vinegar fixes that and is just$2 on the App Store.
