YouTube is reportedly slowing down videos for Firefox usersComments
Radriendil wrote
There's no reason to think it's not. If you're not using Chrome, they have less control over your adblocker. It's in their interest to degrade performance for people using them.
mima wrote
That doesn't explain why Edge which is just as crippled as Chrome is also getting targetted too.
Really, this is old news. Google has been doing these shenanigans for a long time against browsers that aren't exactly Chrome. Nothing has changed in that front.
itsalways1312somewhere wrote
mima wrote
Title is speculation
itsalways1312somewhere wrote (edited )
That's straight from the horses mouth. They asked google and got a response
mima wrote (edited )
That's straight from the horses mouth.
Not really:
In a statement to 404 Media, Google did not provide specifics, but also did not deny implementing an artificial wait time.
They may not have denied the artificial delay, but they have not confirmed it either. Either way they still didn't confirm that this specific delay is part of their "effort" to bring "suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using".
The proper title would have been "YouTube's New 5-Second Video Load Delay May Have Been Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users"
itsalways1312somewhere wrote
“To support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favorite content on YouTube, we’ve launched an effort to urge viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience, the spokesperson said. “Users who have ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using.”
mima wrote
I say again:
they still didn't confirm that this specific delay is part of their "effort" to bring "suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using".
If it really is related to the adblocker fiasco, why is Chrome's useragent not affected but Edge is? That just doesn't make sense as both browsers pretty much use the same codebase.
itsalways1312somewhere wrote
The most plausible speculation I've read is that chrome is affected too. Google is doing A/B tests and when the user in that viral clip switched their user agent, that "new browser" wasn't enrolled in the test.
mima wrote
That's more plausible, but I still don't believe that because:
- Google is very obsessed with making their products (especially Chrome) feel the fastest, and this A/B test theory would be pretty un-Google for them to do. Their marketing strategy against Edge is to claim that Google's web products (like YouTube and Gmail) is faster in Chrome; making YouTube slow for Chrome as well would fly against that current strategy.
- It still doesn't explain why Edge and Firefox's useragents are affected despite not having any adblockers or extensions installed.
itsalways1312somewhere wrote
It still doesn't explain why Edge and Firefox's useragents are affected despite not having any adblockers or extensions installed.
Maybe because of firefox's per default enhanced tracker protection?
Fool wrote
They understand that as Firefox users are more mature, they're happy to take things slowly and enjoy a more relaxed pace.
🐿️
BLVDE wrote
sounds like google bein google
as long as invidious/piped work idk and else its over with using yt for me (only use it for a couple of channels anyway)
EmberGrove wrote
can confirm. I have noticed more lag.
EmberGrove wrote
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-string-switcher/ if it happens to you can just spoof user agent to bypass it
TheGingerNut wrote
weird. I thought that was just part of the adblocker wars