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Yahor Besarab
Yahor Besarab

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I Built a YouTube Extension. People Download It All Over the World.

When I was just starting out, I kept asking myself: “Why bother? There’s already plenty out there — ChatGPT, websites, other extensions.”

But I got tired of spending half an hour on videos I could understand in a minute. That’s how the whole thing started.

What Got on My Nerves

You open YouTube and there’s a 40–60 minute video. An interview, a tutorial, a review. No time to watch the whole thing, but you don’t want to miss it either — what if the one important idea is in there?

I tried different options:

Websites — they ask you to sign up, then hit you with “limit reached, pay up”
ChatGPT — you copy the link, explain what you need, wait. A few minutes per video
Other extensions — some only work on articles, some only on YouTube, some spit out a mess instead of a clear summary
At some point I just shelved the project and thought: “Okay, enough.”

Why I Finished It Anyway

  1. Everything Right on YouTube

I didn’t need “another website.” I needed this: you’re on YouTube → you click the button → you get the gist.

That’s what the extension does:

Short summary — main points as a list, no fluff
Full video text — if subtitles exist, you can read and copy them
Alt+S shortcut — works on other sites too
No jumping to another tab, no copying links by hand.

  1. Not Just YouTube

Then I realized the same problem shows up with articles and long text online.

So the extension can also:

summarize articles on websites
work with PDFs in the browser
summarize selected text — highlight it, right-click
ask questions about a video or article (“what’s this about?”, “what should I remember?”)
translate the summary into another language
save history — go back to an old summary anytime

Used in Countries All Over the World
I built it for myself. I thought it would stay a small tool “for me and people like me.”

After I published it on the Chrome Web Store, installs started coming from all over — the US, Europe, Asia, Latin America. No ads: people just Google things like “youtube summary” or “summarize youtube video” and find it.

🔥 YouTube Video Summarizer: Free with AI — https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/youtube-video-summarizer/pgodlmoknkhodghicfjchampnbdajjno

Turns out “no time to watch a long video” isn’t just my problem — it’s everyone’s.

Why I Wrote This
Not to say “I have the best AI on the planet.”

Because I got tired of choosing between “watch for an hour” and “walk away with nothing.” If you open YouTube, see a long video, and think “I wish someone would just tell me what’s in it” — this is for that.

Try it on any long video with subtitles. Usually half a minute is enough to decide — keep watching or close the tab.

youtube #chromeextension #productivity #ai #summarizer

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