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Wanted to share the libredirect Firefox plugin, for abandoning Youtube. (libredirect.github.io)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This is a plugin I found recently and really enjoy. It gives you the opportunity to redirect several webpages to alternatives. For example Youtube to FreeTube or Piped. If I search for youtube in Firefox, FreeTube automatically opens and shows me my feed. I like it, I use it, I can recommend it.

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[-] [email protected] 27 points 2 years ago

I keep thinking about installing this, but the required permissions seem a bit excessive:

This add-on needs to:

Input data to the clipboard

Access your data for all websites

Anyone know if the 'All Access' permission is really required for what this is doing? It just feels wrong. There isn't some sort of "Control Navigation for These Domains" that it could request for each enabled site or something is there?

[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

"Access your data for all websites" is important because otherwise it doesn't know what domain you're on in the first place.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago

Access browser tabs
Access browser activity during navigation

are enough to do that.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Maybe the devs don't know that. Could you open an issue on this?
Asking you because you may know more about these permissions than me.

I've been using the addon for some time, and while it's good now, there were some silly mistakes in the past. What I'm trying to say is that maybe they're just relatively a beginner, and it haven't yet occurred to them to revisit the permissions.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I went through the issues. Indeed what I said was all you need for redirecting from YouTube et al, but now it also checks every single libre instance you go to and goes to somewhere else if the instance is down.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Shouldn’t it just require access to i.e. YouTube.com and not a blanket everything? This is what other extensions do.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

It can redirect a dozen other services too

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Just add them to the list. They have to code separate rules anyway.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

It's open source, you can ask the author and other users about it too (if you can't read the code yourself)

[-] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Oh, I'm confident(-ish) in my ability to review the code, but as I understand it I have no way to guarantee that the code that's on github is the code that AMO installs. Plus updates are automatic, so I have no way to ensure that something malicious won't be added anyway.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

You can build it yourself from source then.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

You can only do that with Firefox Developer, can't you? And IIRC, they self uninstall after a week or something, don't they?

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You can either install it unsigned with Firefox Developer Edition and it will be permanent. Or you can sign it yourself (you don’t need to publish it on AMO): https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/signing-and-distribution-overview/ and it will work on regular Firefox.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Addon files (.xpi files) are zip packages of the addons. They should contain the script files without obfuscation (I think this is an AMO policy), besides any resources and the addon manifest file.
The only thing that would be harder to inspect I think is webassembly files.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I think you can still build the extension package and upload it yourself

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

I would suggest Redirector.

It lets you redirect any site you desire.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

Sadly the developer passed away. I found out after looking into the development when trying to edit some redirects brought my phone to its knees. It's a good extension, but clearly needs a bit of love.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

RIP Einar Egilsson

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Shit, that's my favorite redirect extension for Chrome.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I use both, LibRedirect and Redirector for things that are not supported in LibRedirect.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

It can also redirect Reddit links to alternative sites and I’m here for the Lemmy hate for Reddit. Sometimes the YT redirects fail to play but you can open a private window to bypass the addon and go straight to YouTube. I second OPs recommendation, for what that is worth.

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I will take a look, but can anyone offer suggestions for casting from my phone? Over the years I have become very accustomed to setting up a YouTube casting queue when I start my remote work shift and just letting it play all day as background noise and as much as I hate YT, I love the creators I watch and the convenience. I am very much so ambivalent about the abuses vs my mental well-being for work.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Take a look at ReVanced

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Unfortunately both ReVanced and ReVanced Extended do not support casting. Just tested it. The whole issue is that I need it put onto the TV, which they unfortunately can not do. I will be keeping them for when I am watching on my phone, so thank you for that.

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[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

SmartTubeNext

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Unfortunately, much like ReVanced, does not support Chromecast.

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[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I was reading the name as "lib-redirect" lol

Also, spanish is my native language

Edit: argh maybe it's LibRedirect indeed

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

If I were to guess, I'd say it's libre-redirect, with the middle 're' being deduplicated.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Ahhh, so it's meant to say libre direct.

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Any reason for making a new extension instead of creating a FastForward filter list?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Never heard of Fast Forward before, only LibRedirect. How do they compare?

Edit: They appear to be totally different use cases

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[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

This still can't be installed on standard FireFox mobile, right?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

on android you can enable "share"/"open in external app" and send the link to piped or newpipe or whatever your preferred app is; that's how I do it

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

On Android, I recommend the UntrackMe app. It basically does the same as LibRedirect. You can also use this hack to install desktop extensions like LibRedirect in Firefox Mobile, it requires Fennec Nightly (essentially the Firefox beta version) or Mull (hardened Firefox which is built from Fennec Nightly) though.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Sadly not, no.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It works fine on Fennec, Beta, Nightly, and others using custom collection.

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[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Any chance it only redirects the watch URLs on YouTube? So you can use YouTube to find the videos and on clicking them links it takes you elsewhere?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Nope, for that you should use something like Redirector, but I don't think it allows random instance selection.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

You can exclude https://youtube.com/ from redirection, that way, the YouTube homepage won't be redirected, but all videos will be.

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[-] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I'd like for connect to redirect links of a certain kind. I don't always want stuff to end up in my YouTube app, would rather that it opened in piped or something instead.

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this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023

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