Here’s How You Can Bring Back Dislike Count to YouTube Videos

Earlier this month, Google-owned YouTube had announced that the count to dislike button will no longer be visible to viewers. However, users can still view the dislike count in YouTube Studio along with other existing metrics. With this, YouTube is trying to create a respectful environment where users can feel safe to express themselves. To solve the dislike count problem, a software developer who goes by the name of Dmitry Selivanov has created an open-source extension for Firefox and Chrome that can bring back the dislike count to YouTube videos. YouTube Makes Dislike Count Private on All Videos.

The extension is called 'Return YouTube Dislike' and is now available for download at https://www.returnyoutubedislike.com/. The extension has already grabbed the attention of more than 50,000 users. The extension grabs and showcases the accurate dislike count by accessing Google's YouTube API. To view the dislike count, open any YouTube video and run the 'Return YouTube Dislike' extension.

As per a report, Google is planning to shut down its API next month. As such, the extension will switch to using a combination of archived dislike stats, estimates extrapolated from extension user data, and estimates based on view/like ratios for videos whose dislikes weren't archived and for outdated dislike archives, which will drop the accuracy of the dislike count over time. Another matter of concern is privacy. To install the Return YouTube Dislike extension, it needs permission to read and change data when the browser loads YouTube. As per the Return YouTube Dislike's FAQ page, the extension will save all data in its database for it to be available after Google shuts down dislike counts in their API.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 30, 2021 11:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).