RecFix Extension was one of my spur-of-the-moment side projects and is still in the MVP phase. Essentially, the extension guides the user to open YouTube.com, where it directly scrapes the recommendations from the YouTube homepage. From there, users can select the videos they like, and the extension takes care of the rest to help refine their YouTube algorithm. The interface is super intuitive and straightforward, so anyone can use it without confusion.
The original idea for RecFix was to be a website where users would input the URLs of videos they liked, and it would fetch their recommendations. But that approach felt way too manual, and scraping recommendations that way didn’t work well—it also hurt the overall user experience. Another challenge I ran into was integrating external user YouTube API keys. After hours of trying to figure it out, I decided to use my own API key as the default. To manage usage, users are limited to 2 API requests per day (which is honestly more than enough for most people).
Despite these challenges, I’m pretty happy with how the extension turned out in its current form. It strikes a balance between functionality and simplicity, allowing users to take control of their YouTube recommendations without jumping through hoops.
The scraping process works seamlessly, and the limitation of 2 API requests per day ensures that the service remains free and sustainable while still being effective. Plus, by using my own API key, I’ve removed the hassle of requiring users to generate their own, making it a plug-and-play tool.
Looking forward, I’ve got big plans for RecFix. Features like enhanced algorithms for even more accurate recommendations, multi-platform support, and maybe even an AI-powered analysis tool are on the horizon. The goal is to make this not just a YouTube extension but a comprehensive solution for managing video recommendations across platforms.
For now, I’d love to hear your feedback! Whether it’s bugs, feature requests, or just your thoughts, feel free to share them. Together, we can make RecFix even better. Thanks for supporting this little project of mine! Ohh and I forgot tell you guys. The project is actually open source too.
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