Alright, so YouTube search has gotten pretty bad lately. If you’re trying to find smaller creators, people making cool stuff but not getting millions of views, it’s harder than it used to be. Here are a few ways I’ve found that still work decently.
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You can use X
A lot of small YouTubers promote their channels on X (you know, the site formerly known as Twitter). The search function there actually works for now, and you can track down niche channels pretty easily. Downside? Yeah, you’re using X. Not ideal. Mastodon can do something similar, and honestly, it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The community is smaller, and it takes a little getting used to, sure. The interface isn’t as polished, but with the right keywords and a bit of patience, you can absolutely find some great low-view creators. Plus, the vibe there is way more welcoming and less chaotic. -
Search Google
Try typing your query into Google and adding “site:youtube.com” at the end. You can also filter by date or use other search tricks. Not every video shows up, but it catches a fair amount. It’s a solid workaround, for now. -
Check Invidious instances
Some of these alternative YouTube frontends scrape content and might surface smaller channels that the main platform buries. It’s not perfect, but worth a quick look. -
Look in Discord servers
A bunch of small creators share their videos in Discord communities, especially around specific topics like gaming, tech, or art. Jump into a few relevant servers and keep an eye on the media channels. -
Browse Twitch streamers
Many Twitch streamers also post their content on YouTube, either full videos or highlights. Twitch’s discovery is still better than YouTube’s when it comes to finding new faces, especially in gaming or creative niches. Checking out smaller streamers could lead you to a YouTube channel you’d otherwise never find.
A heads-up for the future
If YouTube keeps going downhill, some of these methods might stop working. The trick with searching Google to find YouTube videos could stop being useful if Google decides to deprioritize smaller channels or change how its indexing works. xAI could go rogue too and ruin their search quality. At that point, algorithmic recommendations might be the only way most people can find small creators.
If it gets that bad, the only real solution might be automated systems: AI bots scraping YouTube from different accounts and IPs, tracking what small channels pop up in recommendations, and building a searchable index from that. Not perfect, but it could help keep discovery alive.
For now, though, the above tips should keep us going.
For a paid (very reasonable imho) platform, I’m a huge fan of Nebula. A number of creators, some large and some not so large, I was following or would like to follow on YT are there, so I get to support them and stay off YT at the same time. Win/win!
Orrr, check out PeerTube.
The more we use it, the better it will be.
I know, its search sucks worse, but it doesn’t track you.
Also, Fedi.Video has some decent playlist of various video topics. I need to try use PeerTube more
When it comes to alternatives to YouTube, the situation isn’t great.
The most well-known closed-source option internationally is Rumble. It is not as big as YouTube. It has less content and fewer users.
Beyond that, some of the strongest alternatives are based outside the West. For example, China has platforms like Bilibili and Youku. Russia has services such as Rutube and Okko.
On the open-source side, PeerTube, as you said, and Odyssey stand out as the main options people turn to instead of YouTube.
That said, closed-source platforms, even the better ones, are more like temporary fixes. Over time, they could change in ways that end up feeling just as problematic as YouTube.
One of the YouTuber, JacksFlim, does a newsletter called ‘Credit The Creators’ at Substack (I wish it elsewhere than that god-awful platform but I digress) which every week, it shows few videos created by small creators which you vote for which one gets the featured in the next article.
I still think YouTube is good at showing small creators. I regularly see videos with under 100 views and when i click and watch the channel has under 1000 sub’s.
Honestly, I do believe you. It feels as though we’re living in parallel worlds. Are you logged in by any chance, or do you tend to search for extremely niche content? Do these videos appear in the suggestions on the right side, within the home page’s algorithmic feed, or do they come up during regular searches?
If I wanted to get a completely unbiased and genuinely honest review of a popular car brand for example, I find it nearly impossible using only YouTube search. The overwhelming majority of top results come from creators with tens of thousands of views, and they often seem closely aligned with sellers, which raises concerns about conflict of interest.
When I search on YouTube, I typically see around eight videos from high-view creators, followed by a section labeled “Creators I’ve already watched,” or some unrelated content, and that’s it.
