this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
216 points (99.5% liked)

Life Pro Tips

3256 readers
1 users here now

Unlocking the Secrets to Success and Fulfillment!

Rules

  1. Share valuable life pro tips.
  2. Keep it concise and clear.
  3. Stay on-topic.
  4. Respect fellow members.
  5. No self-promotion.
  6. Verify information before sharing.
  7. Avoid illegal or unethical advice.
  8. Report rule violations.

Join us and share your best life pro tips!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
sabbah@lemmy.world
HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world
216
LPT: Always remove the si= part of YouTube links. (lemmy.zip)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by BoycottTwitter@lemmy.zip to c/lifeprotips@lemmy.world
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The part that says either ?si= or &si= is only for tracking. You can remove this part of the link and it will still function just the same. It makes the link shorter and also helps protect your privacy. The only important part of a YouTube URL is the video ID. There are two types of URLs:

youtube.com/watch?v=

For this one you can remove everything after and including the ampersand if present.

youtu.be/(videoid)?tracking

For this one you can remove everything after and including the question mark.

Note the exception is if you want to intentionally leave in playlist information you might want to keep that part.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Just by clicking your link and then going to share it from the YouTube app share button, I get this:

https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

That SI code contains something about how the link has been shared, likely telling YouTube that my specific account has been used to share it to whoever clicks it. It probably has info about how I found it as well, such as direct link, yt suggestions, yt homepage, yt Playlist, etc. Now we're related. Now my analytics will be buddied to yours. Now it that it knows we both like 80s pop music, it'll tell you to watch some other things I find fascinating. (at least, if the link is opened by someone logged into their yt account)