{"id":904900,"date":"2026-05-10T08:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/10\/web-app-lets-you-browse-youtube-with-a-90s-like-channel-guide\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T08:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T13:19:24","slug":"web-app-lets-you-browse-youtube-with-a-90s-like-channel-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/10\/web-app-lets-you-browse-youtube-with-a-90s-like-channel-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Web app lets you browse YouTube with a 90s-like channel guide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The days of flipping through the channel guide are back <\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\"A<\/p>\n

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Remember the days of flipping through TV channels on a Saturday afternoon, looking for something good to watch? Well, now you can do it all over again, thanks to a new web app.<\/p>\n

Named Channel Surfer,<\/a> it is essentially a YouTube discovery tool that surfaces interesting videos by topic and organizes them by time, so you can\u2019t actually skip. It\u2019s also set up to look like a late-90s channel guide. Funny enough, while I was messing around with it, I heard the app make the familiar and very nostalgic \u2018thunk\u2019 of a 90\u2019s CRT TV when changing channels.<\/p>\n

There are currently more than 40 channels in the web-based app, grouped by content type (sports, AI, gaming, History, etc.).<\/p>\n

Steven Irby, the designer, spoke with TechCrunch<\/em><\/a> and explained why he developed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI built Channel Surfer because I\u2019m tired of the algorithms and indecision fatigue,\u201d Irby said. \u201cI miss channel surfing and not having to decide what to watch. I want to just sit and tune into what\u2019s on and not think about what to watch next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Irby posted on X<\/a> that the app had already broken 10,000 views on its first day.<\/p>\n

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OMG this blew up overnight! I got over 10,000 views on day 1. \ud83e\udd2f pic.twitter.com\/fY20ZVB3Xl<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Steven Irby (@StevenIrby) March 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To be fair, there are plenty of these YouTube-based channel surfers out there. One in particular, created by Joey Cato, is \u201cMy Retro TV.<\/a>\u201d It features a neat frame that looks like an old TV and uses YouTube playlists of various content, allowing you to channel-surf through what was on TV in a given year (seriously, you can pick any specific year). This includes movie trailers, sports highlights, commercials, etc. It also isn\u2019t limited to just the 2000s, too: My Retro TV goes all the way back to the 50\u2019s.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, it is a pretty cool channel-flipper if you ever get that nostalgic itch to channel-surf, but I\u2019m not sure I would use it every day. One way I could see myself using it is while working, to have some background noise, avoiding all the midday timeslot filler that is usually on TV.<\/p>\n

Source: Engadget<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The days of flipping through the channel guide are back Remember the days of flipping through TV channels on a Saturday afternoon, looking for something good to watch? Well, now you can do it all over again, thanks to a new web app. Named Channel Surfer, it is essentially a YouTube discovery tool that surfaces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":904901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82940,49,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-904900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-browse","8":"category-youtube","9":"category-youtube-videos"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}