YouTube Learning Tracker

Track the learning value of YouTube videos with status badges and dimming for completed content.

YouTube Learning Tracker helps you organize educational YouTube videos, remember what you have already reviewed, and quickly identify which videos still need your attention. Instead of relying on YouTube’s watch history alone, assign a clear learning status to each video. Status badges appear directly on thumbnails throughout YouTube, while completed videos can be visually dimmed so unfinished learning content stands out. Whether you use YouTube for tutorials, lectures, research, professional development, language learning, or personal projects, YouTube Learning Tracker gives you a simple workflow for processing videos instead of repeatedly losing track of them. KEY FEATURES Track the status of any YouTube video Assign one of four useful tracking statuses: • Watched — You watched the video and no further action is required. • Note Later — You want to return and take notes. • Notes Taken — You have finished reviewing and documenting the video. • No Notes Needed — You evaluated the video and decided that notes are unnecessary. Videos that have not yet been evaluated remain unmarked. Status badges on YouTube thumbnails A small status badge appears on video thumbnails across supported YouTube pages, including: • Home and subscription-style feeds • Search results • Channel video grids • Playlist pages • Related-video and recommendation sidebars • Newer YouTube thumbnail and video-card layouts The badge makes the current status visible without opening the video. Quick click-to-cycle controls Click a thumbnail badge to move through the available statuses: Unmarked → Watched → Note Later → Notes Taken → No Notes Needed → Unmarked This makes it easy to update videos while browsing without interrupting your normal YouTube workflow. Dim completed videos Videos marked as Watched, Notes Taken, or No Notes Needed are visually dimmed. Videos marked Note Later remain fully visible, helping unfinished videos stand out from content that has already been processed. Watch-page controls When you open a video, YouTube Learning Tracker adds a compact control panel near the video title. Select a status directly instead of cycling through every option. Selecting the currently active status again removes it and returns the video to its unmarked state. Changes are saved immediately and reflected across every visible instance of the same video. Designed for YouTube’s dynamic interface YouTube loads and replaces content as you scroll and navigate. YouTube Learning Tracker continually recognizes newly loaded thumbnails and updates badges as YouTube changes pages without a full browser refresh. The extension is designed to avoid duplicate badges and keep the watch-page controls synchronized when moving between videos. OPTIONAL PLAYLIST AWARENESS Connect your YouTube account to see which of your playlists contain a video. Playlist indicators can appear on thumbnails, allowing you to identify saved videos while browsing. Hover over the indicator to see the relevant playlist names. On a video’s watch page, the extension can also display the playlists containing that video. Playlist information is synchronized periodically through the YouTube Data API and can also be refreshed from the extension’s options page. YouTube Learning Tracker requests read-only YouTube access for this optional feature. It does not add videos to playlists, remove videos, edit playlists, upload content, or otherwise modify your YouTube account. BULK IMPORT EXISTING VIDEO LISTS Already have a spreadsheet, notes document, or archive of YouTube links? Open the extension’s options page and paste multiple URLs to import them in bulk. Imported videos can be assigned as: • Notes Taken • Watched • Note Later • No Notes Needed Supported URL formats include standard YouTube watch links, YouTube Shorts links, and youtu.be shortened links. Previously tracked videos are preserved rather than overwritten, and the import summary reports how many links were imported, already tracked, or invalid. EXPORT AND BACK UP YOUR DATA Export your tracked video records as a JSON file from the options page. The export includes information such as: • YouTube video ID • Assigned learning status • Saved title snapshot when available • Last-updated timestamp The exported file can be retained as a personal backup or inspected using other tools. PRIVACY AND DATA STORAGE Your video tracking records are stored locally in your browser using Chrome’s local extension storage. YouTube Learning Tracker does not require a remote account for basic status tracking. When optional playlist awareness is enabled: • Authentication is handled through Google. • The extension requests read-only YouTube access. • Playlist names, playlist membership, synchronization information, and connection status are stored locally in the browser. • The extension does not write to or modify your YouTube account. The extension accesses YouTube pages so it can identify videos, display status controls, and update thumbnail appearance. Access to Google’s YouTube API is used only for the optional playlist synchronization feature. A SIMPLE LEARNING WORKFLOW 1. Browse YouTube normally. 2. Mark useful videos as Note Later. 3. Return when you are ready to study or take notes. 4. Mark them Notes Taken when finished. 5. Mark irrelevant videos No Notes Needed. 6. Let completed videos fade into the background while unfinished material remains visible. YouTube Learning Tracker turns YouTube from an endless stream of recommendations into a more manageable learning queue.