But there’s one thing we all have in common: The inability to resist the black hole that is YouTube. You head to the site with a pure heart and the best of intentions – you’ll just watch a clip about your research topic and then get the heck out, right? Wrong, before you know it you’re binging on crazy cat videos and you can’t stop. Enter DF (Distraction Free) YouTube, a Google Chrome extension that knows your struggle and lets you get in, get what you need and get out. When activated, it transforms the appearance of your YouTube page, entirely eliminating recommendations, related videos, and comments. This is just what you need when you’re in work or study mode or when you’re using a YouTube video in a presentation.
Once installed, you’ll get a black and grey YouTube icon next to your search bar. Then you just go to the YouTube homepage and you’re ready to search and view videos without distraction. But you’re not locked into this viewing mode – you can easily activate or deactivate the extension depending on your activity – if it’s a Saturday and you’ve got time to burn, just deactivate and you’re back to the usual YouTube display. You also have the ability to change DF YouTube’s settings, so you can hide some distractions but show others that you may want to see. For example, get rid of the sidebar but still see related videos that might be helpful.
There are other YouTube extensions, like Options, that come with far more customizable settings and a $2 monthly fee, but if you’re looking for something simple and free, DF YouTube is the perfect tool for getting down to business on YouTube. Featured photo credit: Rayi Christian Wicaksono via unsplash.imgix.net
