10 YouTube Chrome Extensions to Try

Top Ten Google Chrome Extensions for Watching YouTube

103 Comments / Tech, YouTube / By /

UPDATED: December 30, 2016

I remember the day back in 2010 when I was extremely excited to get an email from YouTube informing me that my videos are eligible for monetization. In short, it meant that, I could let YouTube run AdSense on the watch page for each of my videos. The next challenge was to get more visitors coming from search engines who are more likely to be interested in those ads.

As a result, I've started to optimize the titles of my videos and grouped related tutorials into relevant YouTube playlists, hoping to gain an edge and give a boost to my YouTube marketing efforts. It turned out that while I was working away at optimizing my earnings from AdSense, there were tons of developers working just as hard to block those ads.

Here I'd like to introduce you to some of the really cool Chrome extensions that you can download to enhance your YouTube viewing experience. Spoiler alert – no ad blocking extensions allowed. 🙂 I recommend checking out YouTube Red instead.

10 Chrome Extension for YouTube

Chrome Extensions for YouTube

Many of the developers who make add-ons for Google Chrome are focusing on creating extensions for watching YouTube. As a result theses developers have come up with a few that allow you to by-pass any ads or other distractions like comments and annotations, when we're watching videos on YouTube anyway.

Lucky for you guys, my love for sharing awesome Chrome Extensions far exceeds my love for Google AdSense earning from my YouTube videos! Therefore, here's a list of the top ten extensions available to customize your YouTube video watching experience.

Recommended: Top 5 YouTube Channel Tips

10 Tools to Customize How You Watch YouTube on Chrome

MediaPlus – Parashuram Narasimhan is such a cool guy, that he stopped by and commented on The Best Chrome Extensions for New Twitter to share his terrific extension. This extension is not only for Chrome, but it works with Firefox and Opera as well.  Click the image to watch the introduction video and learn how you can use MediaPlus to:

  • Move and resize media content on web pages.
  • Darken everything on the page except the media content.
  • Block that annoyingly loud advertisement on the page.
  • Popout the content out of the page.
  • Download certain Media content.

 

MediaPlus for YouTube - click image to watch the video on YouTube

YouTube Extension Suite – YouTube Extension Suite is a really simple extension that helps you find the total play time of a YouTube Playlist.

Magic Actions For YouTube – has too many features for me to list them all in this post. One of my favorites is the mouse wheel control of the video volume! Magic Actions also works with Vimeo.

Smart Video for YouTube – provides “Smart Buffer” for slow connections. The SmartVideo extension “provides better control over YouTube buffering, quality and playing options”.

Turn off the Lights – get turn off the lights and you'll see the rest of the page go dim so you can watch the video as if you were in the theater.

PIP Video – “Docks your favourite stuff in a floating mobile-view window! Including Facebook chatting, Youtube videos and Hangouts calls” Use PIP Video to watch a tutorial video as you perform the task you're learning.

Popout for YouTube – takes the concept from Picture-In-Picture a step further. With Popout for YouTube you can resize the video and move it around to the desired location on your screen. I don't know about you, but I need to enlarge the video as much as possible and I really love the flexibility of moving the window around.

Enhancer for YouTube – The Enhancer for YouTube extension is pretty robust. It allows you to “Control volume level and playback speed with the mouse wheel”, loop videos, turn off autoplay and a lot more. This one might be a keeper.

Stop Autoplay – does just what the names says and prevents videos from playing until you hit the play button. Stop Autoplay is crucial for slow networks.

vidIQ  – This extension allows you to see detailed stats for any YouTube video.

“vidIQ is the first YouTube audience development and management suite that helps brands, networks, and agencies grow their views and subscribers. vidIQ’s end-to-end YouTube marketing solution provides Actionable Analytics, YouTube SEO, Influencer Identification, Audience Insights, Listening Tools, Comment Moderation, improved video management, and a collaborative workflow.”

Get the vidIQ extension here and watch vidIQ in action in this video

 YouTube SEO Tip: vidIQ Extension for Chrome

Create your own YouTube Video

With all this talk about YouTube, I hope it has inspired you to start creating some videos and uploading them to your own YouTube Channel. So I'll leave you with a quick screencast that I recorded a few years ago before I started this blog, (time really flies) but the video is still relevant today! Remember that using YouTube is a great way to generate traffic back to your blog.

You can create short videos to demonstrate how to do something online, use software you have installed on your computer, or simply record yourself talking into your webcam I use this Logitech HD Pro you can see what it looks like along with the other video creation tools I use in this video.

Now you can install any of the tools I introduced in this top ten list and test them out while you're watching my YouTube videos. Let me know if you have any of these or if you found some YouTube extensions that we need to check out.

Recommended reading and additional resources:30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel by Tim Schmoyer

 

103 thoughts on “Top Ten Google Chrome Extensions for Watching YouTube”

  1. Ana

    Embed YouTube in Google Reader! Like you’ve been reading my mind. I was thinking about something like this, but I got to lazy to search for it. You know those things that would make your life so much easier but they are never so important that you’ll go and do exactly that?

    Thanks for giving it to me on a plate!

  2. Ileane

    Hi Ana,
    The extension for embedding YouTube on Google Reader took me totally by surprise when I was researching this post. It’s ironic because I was just thinking how I get way too many emails from YouTube about channels I subscribe to, but some of them are just to good to unsubscribe. This extension gives me the best of both worlds 🙂

    1. Neha

      hi Ileane, Thanks for sharing these great extensions. I always like to download extensions for chrome and especially when they improve Youtube. Thanks!

  3. Tuan

    Hi Ileane,
    Firstly I want to congrats you as you are eligible for the program Adsense on Youtube videos. I heard that users must have impressive views for their videos to qualify.
    And thanks for sharing the Chrome extensions, I use Chrome sometimes as its speed is much faster than Firefox. Btw, I can watch embed videos directly in Google Readers without any plugins in Firefox, why does it need an extension in Chrome?

    1. Ileane

      Hi Tuan. I currently have over 20,000 views to my uploaded videos on YouTube. What’s amazing is that I didn’t even know they allowed us to share in the AdSense on YouTube videos, but I was glad to hear it.
      I didn’t know that about Firefox, but let me ask you a question. Do you subscribe to any YouTube channels in Firefox? If not can you do me a favor and subscribe to one and let me know if you can watch the video in reader.

      Thanks Tuan!

      1. Tuan

        I subscribe to many Youtube channels and sure I can watch all videos even when I don’t subscribe to their channels.
        Oh I just tried it in Chrome and can watch videos in Reader as well. 🙂

        1. Ileane

          Hi Tuan, I can’t view the video in Google Reader without the extension. I can only see a thumbnail. Do you think you have another extension that is helping you with this? Also, are you on a PC like me? I’m hoping that my YouTube channel is one of the ones you are subscribed to 🙂

      2. Tuan

        Yeah sure I don’t have any extension for Chorme because I hardly use it and I use Chrome on my PC too. I asked some others and they can watch videos within Reader too without extensions.

        1. Ileane

          Tuan, that’s cool! One less extension you need to worry about then. btw – Thanks for subscribing to my channel. I sent you a friend request.

  4. Harleena Singh

    Wow Ileane!

    This is truly an eye opening post as I had never thought we could do so much with YouTube. It is almost like a tutorial with so many extensions.

    Thanks so much for sharing 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Hi Harlena, I was happy to find some of these extensions. MediaPlus might be my favorite, but it’s hard to pick just one.

  5. Aarti

    Really cool extensions, I’m going to install all extensions as all are very interesting and unique, I don’t want to miss any of these extensions. 😉

  6. paul lopez

    The extension Feed YouTube can see at a glance in the same principle of the latest videos widget superimposed channels we subscribe to, and published or recorded clips by our friends. There is one more interesting extension “web clipboard”, to copy and paste text, images or HTML easily from a web page and store it in the cloud via Google Docs Clipboard to retrieve it later.

  7. Herbert

    The first time I add video plugins to my Chrome was a bad experience 🙁 ,,The browser freezes all the time. I was wondering then why did that happened. With this plugins, Ill be reconsidering to have Chrome back on my system 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Herbert, I will agree with you on that! There was one version of Chrome a few months ago that would crash on me all the time. Google fixed that after a couple of weeks and that most recent upgrades seem to work much better. Let me know how you make out after giving it another try. Thanks for your feedback.

      1. Herbert

        I tried reinstalling for a couple of times but still it crashes. As of now, the only plugin on my Chrome browser is the PR checker only. I might try this plugins listed above and see how it goes. 🙂

        1. Ileane

          Right now I’m using Chrome version 14.0.835.202 m. That one seems to be working ok for now. Good luck!

  8. Technbuzz

    You have mentioned most of the extension that i am using already, but they are such a prefect collection, that can’t run all of them at once; which will make my browser a bit sluggish;

    1. Ileane

      Samiullah,
      I add these YouTube extensions one at a time to make sure they don’t crash. You are so right about adding them all at once – not a good idea. I think Chrome gets confused by that 🙂

  10. Brian D. Hawkins

    Hi Ileane, that’s quite a list of extensions. They’re pretty cool but I doubt any will become so popular that it effects our income potential from YouTube.

    I was sent that email from YouTube once too, telling me that a video was going viral and invited me to apply for the ads/partnership. I had to decline because after reading the terms I realized I had violated their TOS. I uploaded a small clip from a TV program. It’s important that we use original content that we own and that we understand the terms. If I had applied I believe I would have risked loosing my account. Now I need to reproduce that result with original content.

    1. Ileane

      Brian, it sounds like you made a wise decision. Once the YouTube staff had a closer look at the video, most likely they would have removed it. That’s not a good feeling – it happened to me concerning a blog post over on Blogger and I had a big knot in my stomach. Good luck on the success of your next video upload.

  11. Mike

    I am new to Internet marketing and honestly I didn’t know that we have to take an approval for showing adsense ads on You Tube. Something new I learned. 🙂 I also like the list of extensions that you have shared. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Mike, it took me by surprise when I got the email too. I thought you had to be a partner for this. Maybe it’s a new program.

  12. JM

    Great list there Ileane, one that I make a lot of use of though, is Video2MP3, which really easily lets you download videos / sound from Youtube – I use it a lot for watching tutorials etc when i’m on the go without an internet connection. You can see it here:
    http:// www. video2mp3. net/

  13. Joshua

    I don’t really use Chrome I’m more of a Firefox guy but I may just download it to check some of these out.

    I too got an invite recently from Youtube but have yet to activate it.

    1. Ileane

      Hey Josh, it looks like there’s a big split between Chrome users and Firefox users. Most people like one or the other – in my case, I never even used Firefox. But a few of these extensions, like MediaPlus for example, have a FF version as well.

  14. Shree

    I use Google Chrome and I am really glad to find out about these extensions! I am just amazed, how do you find so much of information to provide to your readers??Do share your secret. 🙂

  15. Ileane

    Shree, thanks for saying that. I try my best to provide tips and resources that are valuable and at times – just for entertainment. 🙂

  16. Cristian Balau

    From all of them I find only Popout for YouTube really useful as I watch a lot of youtube videos when working or browsing around, as for the rest of them, pretty interesting and I’m very useful to different people…

    1. Ileane

      Hi Cristain, I like Popout for YouTube too and I used it earlier today. Good for multitasking.
      Have you subscribed to my YouTube channel yet? I hope so! Thanks for stopping by.

  17. William Cox

    This is a great list. I must say that a lot of the plugins here are new to me. Especially picture-in-picture. This plugin can surely create a totally awesome watching experience. Just like in TV! There’s no doubt that Youtube can compete with television in the years to come. I wonder what great plugins will be available by then. Great stuff here!

    1. Ileane

      William, I have Verizon FiOS so I can watch YouTube on my TV already. It’s a little buggy at times, but I can watch my own videos from my bedroom 🙂

  18. Lalit

    Ileane, Thanks for the excellent post. I haven’t heard about so lot of plugins and many are totally new for me.

  19. Ritesh

    good collection Ileane. Today youtube is not only a website for entertainment, people use this video website for searching. Many a time, when I find something difficult (say installation of a software, I often go to youtube instead of google).
    List of extension provided by you will be of great use for everyone.
    nice share.

    1. Ileane

      Ritesh, I’m glad you mentioned that because I need to do another post about how to make your videos easier to find on YouTube search. Thanks for the idea my friend 🙂 Glad you liked the post.

      1. Ritesh

        nice one, Ileane. I am waiting to read more about youtube and its capability to be used as a search engine.

    1. Ileane

      Chrome certainly has taken over my PC notebook that’s for sure! When I’m at work I need to use IE, but I have Chrome there too.

  22. Kristina L.

    I must be honest and say that most of all I like the effect of the Turn off the Lights feature. I know it is fun more than it is actually useful, but I cannot help it, I just like it! My number one choice!

    1. Ileane

      Hi Kristina! 🙂

      That’s great! I hope you pop yourself some popcorn and watch all of my YouTube videos with Turn off the lights! But don’t forget to give me a thumbs up! LOL!

  23. Peter

    Thanks for sharing these great extensions. I always like to download extensions for chrome and especially when they improve youtube. Thanks!

  24. OddBlogger

    awwww….. How do you get this kind of information?…. It was really nice and usefull as well i really loved that YTR , YTO , magic actions and popout for youtube.

    Thanks for sharing.

    1. Ileane

      Hey OddBlogger, I’m a Google Chrome fanatic and I spend a lot of time on YouTube too, so I guess that’s the perfect combination to come up with this kind of post.

  25. Michele Welch

    You know Ileane, I’ve been fighting switching to Chrome for some time. I’ve been using Firefox for so long that I’m just so comfortable with it.

    But I see that Chrome has really stepped up with all these great extensions… every time I turn around I hear of a new way to use Chrome. Very cool!

    Thanks for the tutorial. Think I just may check it out. 😉

    1. Ileane

      Hi Michele, yes come join the Google Chrome party! I think you’ll enjoy it! Btw – have you posted any videos on YouTube recently? I’d love to check it out. Feel free to leave a link to your latest vid. Thanks!

  26. Klaus

    Gotta admit, I don’t use any plugins for watching YouTube 🙂 I’m quite happy with how YouTube works “out of the box”, just enlarge the viewer a bit (that arrow in the corner), and it’s good to go.

    Well, I do use the ClickToFlash plugin in Safari though, which serves me MP4 files instead of FLV (flash) on YouTube.

    1. Ileane

      Hey Klaus! I tested all of these when I researched this post and in some cases they are a handy alternative to other tools I already had in place. For example, when I want to download a YouTube video, I use RealPlayer. I’m thinking about doing a tutorial for that one soon too. Thanks Klaus for stopping by!

  27. Sahil Kotak

    A great and a very useful list. And also thanks for telling about Screenr, I would love to try it out. Actually, I was looking for such solution since few days and now I find your post here. Surely, it would help me much.

    1. Ileane

      Shahil, I’m so glad you’re taking an interest in screencasting and making YouTube videos. Screenr is handy because you can login with Twitter or Facebook and start testing right away. Please let me know if you have any questions along the way.

  28. Noel Addison

    It’s not a chrome extension but I love YouTube’s feather version. I would try half these extensions though. I hope they would work even if I am using the lightweight version of YouTube.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Noel, thanks for mentioning YouTube’s feather version. I’m not familiar with it, how does it work?

  29. eUKhost

    That’s a pretty list of chrome extensions for watching Youtube. Well, my opinion were not good about Google Chrome however, after looking at these variety of extensions I think I am gonna use Google chrome again. I really don’t like the speed of Google chrome, but since its improving on other functionality I am believing it.

    1. Ileane

      eUKhost, what is the browser you are using that is faster than Chrome? I would love to hear more about it. Thanks.

  31. Sayed

    Wow nice features, I think I’m gonna use Chrome more from now on.

    Up to now I always preferred using Firefox for its features and how easy it is to work with, however I do have chrome installed but not for browsing use, just for testings.

    Whenever I create a new custom page or try different themes I like to make sure that it runs in all browsers.

    Gonna defiantly give chrome a try though.

    Thanks Ileane. 🙂

    1. Ileane

      Sayed, I think a lot of people are using Chrome in a testing environment like you. I hope you get a chance to enjoy some of these extensions and let me know what you think. Thank you for stopping by.

  32. Robin

    I have started testing Chrome and I was really not aware about it earleir. I hope to use some of the tools you have mentioned above. Thanks Ileane for the nice post.

  33. Linda

    Chrome is really a great browser so it’s really great that such extensions exist because it makes chrome even better. I really like this. Great work!

  35. Birgit

    I’m new within the extentions but i really like it. Thanks for the great list. I’m going to try them.

  38. sanchit

    Hi Ileane,
    This is really a nice articles. i have installed some of the extensions you have mentioned above.
    thanks.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Justin, you’re welcome! Please give this post a +1 and share it on Google+ when you get a chance ok? Thanks for stopping by and for the awesome extension!

  41. Mario M.

    Embed YouTube in Google Reader – this really did capture my mind. I watch a lot of devotional videos on YouTube hence this is a good opportunity for me and many like me to have great and smooth access to YouTube.

  42. shey

    I do not know about this extensions! Your blog is really informative! thanks for sharing this one.. I gotta try this soon!

  43. Adam

    Thanks for the tips. I use Chrome as my first choice browser, but haven’t really got into using the extensions very much. Will give some of the extensions you suggested a go. I’m looking forward to installing the one that plays videos in google reader. It always annoys me having to click through to the actual video on youtube.

  44. jim

    I personally love YouTube Suite, though not found in the Web Store it helps me set HD mode by default and gets rid of the crappy video ads .

  45. Jorge

    Awesome extensions for chrome, thanks for sharing this info, is valuable for me, i agreed with jim, the youtube suite rocks, greetings, and congratulations for your blog, im learning so much with you

  46. Chaitanya

    Chrome is my default browser, however I never tried such extensions, Thanks for sharing. I will give it a try for sure!

  48. Aaron H.

    Here’s another one, its called Stop Autoplay for YouTube. It’s a nifty little extension, that prevents Youtube videos from playing automatically, but still lets them load up in the background. Handy for low-speed internet users who might want to let the video load up before playing it, as well as for people who’ve opened up multiple Youtube vids.

  51. Werry Adnan

    wow, this is a great list of chrome extensions that i need for watch youtube. I think i need to install YouTubeSuite right now because video ads and animated thumbs of videos really disturbing me..

    Thanks Ileane for great tips

  53. manisha singh

    Excellent information!
    I always use google chromake for watching video it it gives every comfort to view clear and best quality of videos.
    Thank you.

  55. sunil

    Wow Great plugin for YouTube
    I mostly like “YouTube Refreshed” extension for YouTube.Thank you Ileane for this great post.I really appreciate your work and effort.Keep it up

  56. Riki

    Hi Ms. Ileane,
    I just found out about these 10 tools, but after reading the explanation from you, these 10 tools is worth for me to use and I can not wait to try it.
    Thanks so much Ms. Ileane for your tips.

  58. Sean Walker

    I’m a huge fan of the lights off plugin. Looks like I won’t be able to use the embed in Google reader for much longer 🙁

  59. Lee

    Hi
    I have just started playing with you tube as in making videos I have only done a couple so far. As they turned out to be a lot harder to get right than I thought and they were just sport ones. What I do like the idea of from your list though for watching videos is turn off the lights. Sounds great hopefully then there is nothing of the same intensity to de tract from the viewing. Will give some of the others a look as well but that is the one that jumps out at me.

    Great info thanks lee

  60. Gautam

    these are some of the best Extensions and give really awesome experience While Seeing Youtube videos.I request all readers to try Turn of the lights plugin for Youtube once.

  62. Hamza

    These are amazing YouTube extensions for Chrome users, but sadly 🙁 I can’t use YouTube in my area, as it is blocked by our ISP.

    1. Ileane

      Sorry to hear that YouTube is blocked of you! Do you have access to any of these other sites:
      Vimeo
      Meta Cafe
      Daily Motion

      If so you can watch all of my video tutorials there. Just search for “Ms. Ileane Speaks” and I’m sure you will find them. Let me know.

  63. Sandy

    Couple of extensions that you posted here are definitely worth of use. Turn off the Lights is my favorite one, it gives me a theater alike feeling. I found one to download video as well, I shall post the link here once I get access to my other machine

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