A few weeks ago, Google pushed through a very unpopular change on YouTube that made it difficult to find worthwhile and less rewarding videos: The thumbs-down counting has been removed. Although the data is officially no longer available, a clever Chrome extension can now bring it back. If you are interested in it, you should definitely use the extension.
For a long time Google had toyed with the idea of defusing the thumbs down on YouTube, but delayed the decision for a long time – only to implement it in December anyway. The thumbs-down counter has been removed. The button is still there and has an effect, but users only see the number of thumbs up. However, this number is not very meaningful without the opposing evaluations of the other users. It’s like showing only 4-5 stars on reviews and removing all others. It makes no sense.
YouTube may have given understandable reasons for removing the counter, but it is a nuisance for the majority of users. This is where the Chrome extension Return YouTube Dislikes comes in, which can bring those values back. If you have installed the extension, it does its work completely in the background and shows the number of thumbs in the usual place next to the thumb. And because this value is there again, the small diagram bar under the thumb also comes back.
The extension ensures that everything stays the same. No wonder it already has more than a million users and a strong community. The latter is not just a trophy for the developer, it also contributes greatly to the fact that the extension can always deliver better results. Because: The community is where all the data comes from.
According to the company, the extension had collected the like and dislike counters of more than 200 million videos by the time the YouTube API was switched off in mid-December 2021. This data is now accessed, which already covers a fairly large part of the video platform. But of course, this data now becomes out of date very quickly and due to the mass of uploads, this is not relevant for long. In addition, the likes then naturally increase, but the dislikes do not. But this weakness can be compensated for.
The extension not only works as a one-way street but also registers all dislikes of the users who have installed it. This means that the more users have installed the extension, the more precise the data is. However, +1 million users are of course nothing compared to more than a billion YouTube users. Nevertheless, at first glance, the data also seems to be understandable for new videos. I have to say that, despite all the FAQs and information, I haven’t quite figured out how this is calculated exactly.
In any case, you should try the extension once and, ideally, leave it installed. The source code is available for viewing on GitHub.