I use DuckDuckGo for search, and it gives you the option to watch full YT videos without actually going to YouTube. I only watch videos that I’ve searched for - not ones that YT suggests to me, so this has been sufficient. Watching this way does not have ads (so far) but it does warn that YT can still use trackers.
Other’s advice (plugins etc.) are probably better overall, but this is the simplest option for me. I haven’t felt the need to find a more robust solution, but that’s only because of how I use YouTube.
Edit - when you click a DDG search result that is YT, this pops up:
I use DuckDuckGo for search, and it gives you the option to watch full YT videos without actually going to YouTube. I only watch videos that I’ve searched for - not ones that YT suggests to me, so this has been sufficient. Watching this way does not have ads (so far) but it does warn that YT can still use trackers.
Other’s advice (plugins etc.) are probably better overall, but this is the simplest option for me. I haven’t felt the need to find a more robust solution, but that’s only because of how I use YouTube.
Edit - when you click a DDG search result that is YT, this pops up: