YNotes is a web application designed to help users efficiently organize and manage notes taken while watching YouTube videos. It combines video playback with a rich text editor, allowing users to create notes and timestamped annotations, save their work, and easily revisit important moments in videos.
YNotes Privacy Policy | YNotes Terms of Service
Youtube Video Playback and Note-Taking
The heart of YNotes lies in its “Workspace” tab. Users begin by providing a YouTube video URL through an input field or an “Add Video” dialog. The application intelligently parses various YouTube URL formats, including standard watch links, shortened youtu.be links, links to YouTube Shorts, and URLs containing specific start timestamps.
Adjacent to the right or below the video player, a rich text editor is provided. This editor features a toolbar with common formatting options such as bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, links, headings (H1, H2, H3), bullet lists, numbered lists, blockquotes, code blocks, and horizontal rules. Users can type their notes freely.
Key note-taking enhancements include:
- Timestamp Insertion: A “Timestamp” button allows users to click it at any point during video playback. This action inserts a formatted timestamp (e.g.,
[01:23]) into the notes. This timestamp is a special clickable link that, when clicked later (either in the Workspace or the Saved Videos report), reloads the current video (or the linked video) in the Workspace and seeks directly to that specific time. - Date+Time Insertion: A button allows users to quickly insert the current date and time into their notes, useful for logging when a note was taken or for general journaling.
- Transcript Fetching: A “Transcript” button attempts to fetch the transcript of the currently loaded video. If successful, the transcript is inserted into the editor, typically under a “Transcript” heading.
- Notes are auto-saved two seconds after the user stops typing. Feedback messages like “Auto-saving notes…” and “Notes Auto-Saved!” are displayed to keep the user informed. If a user loads a video for which notes already exist, those notes are automatically loaded into the editor.
Video Navigation
For easier navigation through a series of saved videos, “Previous Video” and “Next Video” buttons are available in the Workspace. These allow users to cycle through their saved notes list (respecting any active search filters from the “Saved Videos” tab) without having to manually select each one from the report view.
User Authentication and Data Persistence
YNotes requires users to be authenticated to save and access their notes. The authentication system is powered by Google Firebase Authentication and offers one main method:
- Sign in with Google:ย OAuth-based sign-in using a Google account. The application includes dedicated pages for login (
/login) and signup (/signup).
Saved Videos Attributes
All video notes are stored in Firebase Firestore under a videoNotes collection. Each note document typically includes:
userId: Linking the note to the authenticated user.videoId: The YouTube video ID.videoTitle: The title of the video.notes: The HTML content of the notes from the Tiptap editor.isShort: A boolean indicating if the video is a YouTube Short.createdAt: Timestamp of when the note was first created.updatedAt: Timestamp of when the note was last modified.lastWatchedAt: Timestamp of when the video associated with the note was last loaded or watched in the Workspace. This is updated automatically when a video is loaded, helping to sort notes by recency of interaction.
Import your Liked YouTube Videos
We’re excited to introduce a new way to quickly bring your curated YouTube content into YNotes: Import Liked Videos!
Many of us use YouTube’s “Like” feature to bookmark videos we find interesting, informative, or want to revisit later. With our new import tool, you can effortlessly transfer these liked videos directly into YNotes, ready for you to organize, take notes on, and integrate into your learning or content creation workflow.
How it Works & Your Consent:
To enable this feature, when you sign up or log in to YNotes using your Google account, we will request your permission to access your liked videos on YouTube. This is done through the secure Google OAuth consent screen, where you’ll see that YNotes is asking for the youtube.readonly scope.
youtube.readonlyย scope: This permission allows YNotes toย viewย your list of liked videos. Weย do notย gain permission to modify your YouTube account, change your likes, or access any other private YouTube data.- User Control: You are always in control. You’ll see a dialog within YNotes displaying your liked videos, allowing you to select exactly which ones you want to import. Only the videos you explicitly choose will be added to your YNotes workspace.
- Privacy First: Your liked video information is used solely for the purpose of displaying it to you for import and is handled in accordance with ourย Privacy Policy.
By granting this permission, you can save significant time and effort by quickly populating YNotes with content you’ve already identified as valuable. It’s just another way YNotes helps you streamline your video-based learning and note-taking.
Saved Videos Report Tab
The second main section of YNotes is the “Saved Videos” tab, which acts as a comprehensive report of all notes a user has saved. This tab lists each noted video as a card. Each card displays:
- The video thumbnail.
- The video title, which is clickable and will load that video and its notes back into the “Workspace” tab.
- A blue “Short” badge if the video is a YouTube Short.
- A preview of the notes content. This content is HTML rendered, and timestamps within these notes are also clickable, taking the user to the Workspace with the video cued to that specific time.
- Detailed metadata: “Created,” “Last Modified,” and “Last Watched” timestamps, along with a “Word Count” for the notes.
- A “Delete” button, which prompts for confirmation before permanently removing the note from Firestore.
Functionality in this tab includes:
- Search: A search bar allows users to filter their saved videos by keywords found in either the video title or the note content. Matches within the title or notes are highlighted in yellow.
- Expand/Collapse Notes: A toggle button allows users to expand all note previews to their full length or collapse them to a shorter, scrollable view.
- Print Report: A “Print” button triggers the browser’s print dialog. Custom CSS rules are applied to format the “Saved Videos” list into a more printer-friendly report, hiding irrelevant UI elements like the main header, tabs, and search bar.
Conclusion
The UI is designed to be responsive and user-friendly, with toast notifications providing feedback for actions like saving notes, login success/failure, and errors. The overall aesthetic is clean and modern, adhering to industry standards.
In essence, YNotes is a specialized tool focused on enhancing the learning and information retention process from YouTube videos by integrating playback, powerful note-taking features, and robust organization capabilities, all within a streamlined and authenticated user experience.
YNotes is operated by Gestion PMcom Inc.
Gestion PMcom Inc.
400-1280 Lebourgneuf Blvd.
Quebec City, Quebec, G2K 0H1
CANADA
Contact us: support@projectmanagers.net