What it is:
Popular50 shows the top 50 YouTube Videos and shorts that are trending right now for each country and category. No login, No Ads
Try it:
Open the site -> pick a country (top-right) (US is default) -> filter with category chips -> click a card to watch the video (embedded player)
Why I built it:
YouTube's "Trending" is hard to browse by country x category in one place. And then YouTube decided to remove the Trending page from it's UI. I missed that overview for content discovery and know what's really trending everywhere.
How it works (tech)
A task runner pulls YouTube's trending date from YouTube Data API into ElasticSearch. A simple python backend connects the front-end and ElasticSearch. Front-end Pages are SSR'd (Next.js + shadcn/ui). Data refreshes every 12 hours for now (quota-bound); I've applied for higher quota to reach 30-min refreshes.
What's different:
* Country-scoped browsing with category chips
* Up to Top 50 videos per category
* Watch directly from Popular50.com instead of redirecting to YouTue website
* No ads on the page
Roadmap (near-term)
* Reduce refresh time to every 30 minutes
* UI experiments on the watch page
* MCP Server if anyone is interested.
* Mobile app / Chrome Extension if anyone is interested
Looking for Feedback
* IA/UX: navigation and overall UX
* What would keep you coming back daily?
* General Feedback, Suggestions and Recommendations!
Happy to answer questions and ship quick fixes today.
Try it: Open the site -> pick a country (top-right) (US is default) -> filter with category chips -> click a card to watch the video (embedded player)
Why I built it: YouTube's "Trending" is hard to browse by country x category in one place. And then YouTube decided to remove the Trending page from it's UI. I missed that overview for content discovery and know what's really trending everywhere.
How it works (tech) A task runner pulls YouTube's trending date from YouTube Data API into ElasticSearch. A simple python backend connects the front-end and ElasticSearch. Front-end Pages are SSR'd (Next.js + shadcn/ui). Data refreshes every 12 hours for now (quota-bound); I've applied for higher quota to reach 30-min refreshes.
What's different: * Country-scoped browsing with category chips * Up to Top 50 videos per category * Watch directly from Popular50.com instead of redirecting to YouTue website * No ads on the page
Roadmap (near-term) * Reduce refresh time to every 30 minutes * UI experiments on the watch page * MCP Server if anyone is interested. * Mobile app / Chrome Extension if anyone is interested
Looking for Feedback * IA/UX: navigation and overall UX * What would keep you coming back daily? * General Feedback, Suggestions and Recommendations!
Happy to answer questions and ship quick fixes today.