SearchLens for YouTube

Advanced YouTube search controls for custom dates, strict matching, duration, views, channels, and cleaner results.

SearchLens for YouTube adds advanced search controls to YouTube, helping you narrow down results, reduce clutter, and find the videos you are actually looking for. YouTube’s built-in search filters are useful, but they can be limiting when you need more control. SearchLens adds a dedicated advanced search panel with custom date ranges, strict keyword matching, title filters, channel controls, duration filters, view-count filters, sorting options, and tools for cleaning up search results. Whether you are researching a topic, looking for older videos, searching within a specific time period, comparing tutorials, finding long-form content, or simply trying to remove unwanted results, SearchLens gives you more ways to refine your YouTube searches. Search YouTube with more control SearchLens lets you start a YouTube search directly from the extension popup or open advanced filters on an existing YouTube search results page. A floating SearchLens launcher appears on supported search pages, giving you quick access to the full filter panel whenever you need it. Custom date range search Go beyond broad upload-date options such as “This week” or “This year.” SearchLens allows you to enter: A full date A year and month A year only A custom From and To range Examples: 2020 2020-06 2020-06-15 You can also use the built-in calendar and year picker to quickly navigate across months and years. Quick date presets include: Past 24 hours Past 7 days Past 30 days Past year Any time Custom date searches use YouTube search query date operators. These can be useful for narrowing searches by time period, although YouTube does not officially guarantee exact or complete date-based results. Strict keyword and title matching SearchLens gives you more control over relevance. You can: Require all specified words Require an exact phrase in the video title Exclude unwanted words Show only titles containing every word from your search query This is useful when broad YouTube searches return videos that are only loosely related to what you searched for. Channel filters Narrow results by channel information. You can: Only show results from channels containing a particular name or keyword Exclude channels containing specified words This can help when researching a specific creator, avoiding clip channels, removing unwanted networks, or focusing on a particular source. Filter videos by duration YouTube’s standard duration options can be too broad. SearchLens lets you enter your own: Minimum video duration Maximum video duration For example, you can look for videos between 20 and 90 minutes instead of relying only on broad preset duration categories. Filter by view count Set your own popularity range with: Minimum views Maximum views This can help you: Find lower-view videos from smaller creators Focus on popular results Avoid extremely high-view mainstream results Narrow research to a specific level of audience reach Sort matching results SearchLens can reorganize the matching videos currently loaded on the page. Available sorting options include: Original YouTube order Newest shown first Most views first Fewest views first Longest first Shortest first Sorting applies to the search results that YouTube has already loaded. Scroll further down the page to load more videos, and SearchLens will continue applying your selected filters. Clean up YouTube search results SearchLens can hide several types of results and interruptions that may get in the way of a focused search. Options include: Hide Shorts Hide recommendation shelves and interruptions Hide playlists Hide mixes Hide channel cards Hide live streams Hide watched or previously clicked videos Use only the options you need and keep the rest of the YouTube search experience unchanged. Start a search from anywhere You do not need to manually open a YouTube search results page before using SearchLens. Open the extension popup, enter your search term, and SearchLens can take you directly to the YouTube results. From there, open the advanced filters to refine the search further. A lightweight floating launcher On YouTube search results pages, SearchLens adds a small floating launcher for quick access to the advanced filter panel. The launcher can be: Clicked to open or close SearchLens Dragged to a more convenient position Dismissed when you do not need it You can reopen SearchLens again from the browser extension toolbar. Useful for SearchLens can be especially useful for: YouTube research Finding older videos Searching within a specific year or date range Finding long-form videos Discovering smaller channels Filtering by video popularity Removing Shorts from search results Looking for tutorials and guides Comparing videos across different time periods Narrowing broad or noisy searches Finding videos with specific words in their titles Key features ✓ Advanced YouTube search controls ✓ Custom date ranges ✓ Built-in calendar and year picker ✓ Search by year, month, or exact date ✓ Require specific keywords ✓ Exact phrase title matching ✓ Exclude unwanted words ✓ Include or exclude channels ✓ Custom minimum and maximum duration ✓ Minimum and maximum view filters ✓ Hide Shorts ✓ Hide playlists and mixes ✓ Hide live streams ✓ Hide recommendation shelves ✓ Hide watched or previously clicked videos ✓ Sort loaded results by date, views, or duration ✓ Search YouTube directly from the extension popup ✓ Draggable floating SearchLens launcher Important notes Some SearchLens features filter or reorganize the results that YouTube has already returned and loaded on the page. SearchLens cannot force YouTube to return videos that are not included in YouTube’s own search results. Custom date searches use YouTube search query operators. Their behavior and completeness are controlled by YouTube and may change over time. SearchLens is an independent browser extension and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google. YouTube is a trademark of Google LLC.