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Comment by AJ007 | Hacker News Reader

This is a good example of a "forced" or "assisted" conversion. The user really doesn't want to do it, they just want to view the damn YouTube video.

Google is employing these same optimization techniques elsewhere. I've noticed very subtle, and consequently expensive, things that have been done with Adwords.

There is a simple solution to this, which unfortunately castrates Google's entire platform. Its the same reason why I've been avoiding Android. It is also why I have to tell my friends I can't view their Youtube link because it says I have to sign in.

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FYI, you can replace "watch?v=12345" to "/v/12345" to view videos without logging in (works for age-restricted content as well). As a bonus, the video fills the browser screen, and removes all the annoying "related" content, comments, etc.

That's one hell of a goddamn tip. As someone who recently closed their Google account, this will come in handy. Thanks.

Or if you're on Linux, you can use youtube-dl + mplayer to get a high-quality hardware-accelerated glitch-free viewing experience, instead of the RealPlayer-esque experience Flash provides.

Also try youtubedown in place of youtube-dl - I think it works with a bigger percentage of videos.

http://www.jwz.org/hacks/#youtubedown

Source ? If some video doesn't work with youtube-dl, I'm sure they'd like to hear about it.

Own impression, but might just be luck vs. me updating them. Youtube changes the obfuscation around periodically to discourage apps like these.

> * It is also why I have to tell my friends I can't view their Youtube link because it says I have to sign in.*

You can avoid this by deleting assorted Google cookies. It only tells you to log in because Google is tracking/recognizing you anyway, even when you're logged out, because of their cookies.

A friend of mine who is interning at Google this summer started pushing Google now on me really hard over dinner this week. Your post mirrors the queezy feeling I got from thinking about the prospect of going even deeper into the Google services quagmire. It just doesn't feel quite right.

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