YouTube Shorts Are Horrible on Desktop. Here's How I Used AI to Fix Them. (2024)

I love YouTube. Hardly a day goes by that I don't have videos playing in the background while I work. And when I'm not working, I'll watch some of my favorite YouTubers, consult how-to videos for all sorts of DIY projects and recipes, and otherwise use the video sharing site for entertainment, education, and general time-wasting. And since a fair amount of my personal browsing is done on my phone, I've consumed plenty of YouTube Shorts.

But when I'm using a laptop or desktop, YouTube Shorts are kind of awful. In my browser, the video framing is always wrong, and cuts off part of the video. It's also difficult to navigate within a Short, because YouTube assumes you're not pausing and rewinding these bite-sized clips, just consuming them one after another. And it's a hassle trying to view comments on a Short, or see more videos from the channel. It's an all around hassle.

YouTube Shorts look lousy in a desktop browser (Credit: PCMag / YouTube)

I just want these short clips presented in standard YouTube format, and since there's no indication that YouTube plans to release such a feature anytime soon, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Here's how I used a free AI tool to make a custom browser bookmarklet that solves this problem for me.

Do Your Homework First

Some clever detective work (i.e., watching a few more videos and noticing the URLs) lets me see that standard YouTube videos and YouTube Shorts use a different URL structure. The address is different for Shorts, as seen below.

Standard YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

YouTube Shorts URL: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MNa1cRL77po

Those URLs don't look so different. I wonder if there's a way to convert the Shorts URL format into a standard YouTube link?

Let's see if we can solve this problem using ChatGPT.

For this experiment, I'm just using the standard free version of ChatGPT, running ChatGPT 3.5, with no extra bells or whistles. There are no special modes, no custom instructions, and no premium features. You could even do this without a ChatGPT account since the service is free to try.

One other important detail: I don't know how to code. I'm doing all of this with zero programming knowledge, so don't be discouraged if you're in the same boat. If I can do it, so can you!

Asking ChatGPT

I started with my initial prompt, using the same examples as I shared above and a condensed version of my YouTube Shorts complaints.

A note on how to write a good prompt: I laid out my issue, gave it some example data to illustrate the problem, and then simply asked if there was a way to convert the URL. Clear and simple is the winning formula for using AI chatbots.

The start of the conversation (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

ChatGPT's response was simple. It explained how to manually change the URL. It understood the problem and presented a workable solution based on my request. But it wasn't the sort of solution I had in mind, so I had to clarify.

My follow up response (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

My follow-up prompt wasn't perfect. (I wasn't copyediting my work for publication; I was just trying to quickly hash out a solution.) But I clarified that I wanted a more robust solution, one that I could apply with the click of a button.

In response, ChatGPT laid out two separate approaches: A JavaScript browser bookmarklet or a browser extension.

Two options, a browser bookmarklet... (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

...or a browser extension (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

Being a non-coder, the bookmarklet sounded less daunting, so I opted for that.

I wish I could share the code here for our readers to copy and use for themselves, but the intricacies of our publishing platform make that difficult. But it looks like this.

Here's the code, if you want to type it in yourself (Credit: Brian Westover)

But remember, I'm not a coder. I didn't write it; ChatGPT did. Getting a similar code shouldn't be any more difficult than trying this same process on ChatGPT yourself.

However, I also don't understand the code snippet above, and I didn't want to simply run random code on my system without knowing what it does. On top of that, I also wanted to avoid any hiccups that might be caused by using wonky code or a made-up function. So, I asked ChatGPT to explain what that code does. Walking through the logical steps of an answer or piece of code is a great way to not only learn a bit about how things work—it's also a good way to help ChatGPT catch its own mistakes.

Bookmarklet code explained. (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

With the code explained to me, piece by piece, I felt okay about trying it out. But how do you actually do that?

Well, you can ask ChatGPT for instructions to follow. And it delivered exactly that.

How to make a bookmarklet, steps 1-3. (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

How to make a bookmarklet, steps 4-6. (Credit: Brian Westover / OpenAI)

The resulting instructions are clearly laid out and easy to follow, so I copied the code, pasted it into a new bookmark's URL field, and titled the new bookmarklet "YT Shorts Switch."

One small quirk: After already presenting me with properly formatted code, the instructions tell me to convert it by putting the "javascript" tag at the beginning of the snippet. But upon reading the instructions, I realized that the code I already had on my clipboard was ready to go.

After that, it was as simple as saving the edited bookmark to my bookmarks bar.

Testing the Bookmarklet

With my freshly minted bookmarklet, all that was left was to test it and see if it worked.

First, I pulled up a YouTube Short from PCMag's own YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4z2GauiUPro

Just click the bookmarklet button... (Credit: Brian Westover / PCMag / YouTube)

I clicked on my new "YT Shorts Switch" bookmark button. And just like magic, the page reloaded with a standard YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2GauiUPro

...Ta-Da! URL swapped, and my preferred YouTube format achieved. (Credit: Brian Westover / PCMag / YouTube)

Problem solved! The simple URL tweak does the job, and the bookmarklet makes it happen with a single mouse click. Easy, quick, and reusable.

Not only did it give me a solution I could use again and again, but I even learned a bit of JavaScript along the way.

You could do it right now. Give it a try!

Apply and Experiment

The point here is not just to provide you with a handy way to change the layout of YouTube videos (though the code is just up above, if you want to.) Instead, it's an experiment to see how ChatGPT makes technology more accessible and how it lets anyone, even someone with zero coding knowledge or experience, make a custom tool in minutes.

These sorts of quick code solutions are available to anyone using free tools like ChatGPT, but the fixes that are most helpful will be those that solve your own irritations.

Here are some other ideas for bookmarklets that I've made successfully, and that you could make using a similar process:

• Automatically format bibliographic citations of web pages

• Redirect to the Archive.org version of a webpage

• Remove YouTube video controls for clean screenshot images

With a little creativity, you can find problems in your own daily tasks that can be improved with these sorts of little automations. They don't have to be major technologies to have a big impact, and creating these bespoke tools has never been easier. Thanks to AI, you can do it without knowing any code at all.

How do you use ChatGPT to make your life easier? Share you best clever tricks in the comments below.