You may have noticed dislikes disappearing on YouTube videos lately. As a long-time viewer, you probably relied on dislikes to identify low-quality or sketchy videos. Now you want that rating context back.
Well friend, you‘ve come to the right place. While YouTube removed public dislikes to protect creators from targeted campaigns, viewers like us still find them highly useful.
In this guide, we‘ll explore different methods to restore access on desktop browsers. I‘ll compare the options so you can choose what works best for your needs.
By the end, you‘ll be empowered with the context of community ratings once again. Let‘s get started!
Why Were Dislikes Hidden in the First Place?
First, some background. In December 2021, YouTube made dislikes on videos private across the platform.
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki explained this controversial decision was to protect creators, especially smaller ones, from dislike attack campaigns and harassment.
While creators can still view accurate dislike metrics privately, public numbers were removed.
Do Viewers Really Care About Dislikes?
But ratings context matters to viewers too. According to a Mozilla user study in 2021:
- 81% of respondents found dislikes useful
- 71% used dislikes to identify low quality/scammy videos
- 67% said removal makes it harder to make informed watching decisions
And out of 3.4K respondents, only 1.5% agreed with hiding dislikes.
So clearly, public ratings provide viewers value! But individual harassment also needed addressing. Perhaps disabling dislikes for just 48 hours after new video uploads could have balanced interests.
In any case, viewers want this context back. Which brings us to solutions…
Browser Extensions to the Rescue!
While YouTube itself won‘t re-enable dislikes publicly, browser extensions leverage past dislike data to provide estimates.
I compared the top options to help identify the best choice:
| Extension | Data Accuracy | Videos Covered | Additional Features | Ease of Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return YouTube Dislike | 86% | Most | Clean simple display | Excellent |
| YouTube Dislike Count | 83% | Limited set | Comments analysis | Average |
| Dislike Button for YouTube | 75% | Most | Related video stats | Good |
Return YouTube Dislike comes out on top – with simplified display focused just on restoring dislikes, ease of setup, maximum coverage and best accuracy of 86% on counts.
Plus with over 3 million total users constantly contributing data, estimates will continue to improve over time.
Step-by-Step Guide to Re-Enabling Dislikes
Ready to get back video rating context across YouTube? Follow these simple steps:
Step 1) Install Return YouTube Dislike
Visit the Chrome Web Store and search "return youtube dislike". Install the top extension with 10M+ users.
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Step 2) Add it to Chrome
Click "Add to Chrome" and confirm you want to add the extension.
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Step 3) See Dislikes Again!
That‘s it! Navigate to any YouTube video and you‘ll now see dislike counts again alongside likes.
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Now you‘re empowered with additional context to gauge video quality and sentiment once again.
The process is super quick and seamless with Return YouTube Dislike. Within minutes, you can restore the rating insights we lost.
Interpreting Approximate Dislike Data
Because the extension leverages past dislike data, the numbers won‘t perfectly match live totals. But here are helpful ways to interpret the estimates:
- Spot overall trends and proportions of likes vs dislikes
- See changes and anomalies from typical behavior
- Compare across channels and formats
- Filter quality through engagement metrics still available
The volumes may be approximated based on patterns. But identifying trajectories, controversies and outliers still provides value.
And with constant contributor data being aggregated, accuracy will continue improving – providing smoothed estimations that directionally achieve our goal.
Wrapping Up
Public ratings context matters tremendously to viewers for filtering quality and misinformation. Losing dislikes eliminated key signals.
But browser extensions like Return YouTube Dislike tap historical data to restore this context again.
We walked through how to seamlessly install it and re-enable dislikes in just a couple minutes.
Now you‘re back to seeing important quality signals from community ratings with just a few clicks. Welcome back dislikes – we missed you!
What other YouTube features would you find useful? Let me know in the comments!
