Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away. (old.reddit.com)
from mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world to degoogle@lemmy.ml on 20 Nov 2023 18:10
https://lemmy.world/post/8525436

#degoogle

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QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 18:15 next collapse

Ugh, Google just gets worse and worse…

Jessvj93@lemmy.world on 22 Nov 2023 11:18 next collapse

Adblocks are really fucking them over and it’s gratifying seeing chrome uninstalls peaking rn.

technom@programming.dev on 22 Nov 2023 11:37 collapse

Actually, this isn’t the first time they did it. There was a thread by a mozilla ex-employee that described how Google destroyed Firefox’s market share using the same dirty trick.

andioop@programming.dev on 15 Dec 2023 17:58 collapse

Thread can be read on this article.

YouTube page load is 5x slower in Firefox and Edge than in Chrome because YouTube’s Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated Shadow DOM v0 API only implemented in Chrome. You can restore YouTube’s faster pre-Polymer design with this Firefox extension: t.co/F5uEn3iMLR

— Chris Peterson (@cpeterso) July 24, 2018

According to that article,

Google Chrome ads started appearing next to Firefox search terms. Gmail & [Google] Docs started to experience selective performance issues and bugs on Firefox. Demo sites would falsely block Firefox as ‘incompatible’

while Firefox was still a Google search partner.

EDIT: Did not realize how long ago this post was made, whoops.

yote_zip@pawb.social on 20 Nov 2023 18:24 next collapse

I’ve been noticing this for a while now. I chalked it up to YouTube having ugly code, but now I see that it is simply malicious code.

technom@programming.dev on 22 Nov 2023 11:39 collapse

Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence*.

  • Except for Google. This is the same company that decided that ‘Don’t be evil’ is inappropriate for them.
heygooberman@lemmy.today on 20 Nov 2023 18:25 next collapse

This doesn’t have any impact on video load times on Piped, does it?

ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de on 20 Nov 2023 18:38 collapse

Why would it? I don’t think your browser makes any direct connection to youtube.com when using Piped, all goes through a proxy server of your choice (hence the name).

heygooberman@lemmy.today on 20 Nov 2023 18:42 collapse

Just checking

MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 18:39 next collapse

Wanting to archive the resources I found:

uBlock Origin has managed to reduce the delay in loading by a bit

notfromhere@lemmy.one on 20 Nov 2023 18:47 next collapse

It would be nice if FTC or someone would sue them for anticompetitive behavior.

guyrocket@kbin.social on 20 Nov 2023 19:25 next collapse

And, you know, broke them up into many smaller companies.

stellargmite@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 19:34 collapse

I wonder to what extent this will help, in the case of YouTube? Its so dominant of that market. Is it purely fiscal or also technical?

Quik@infosec.pub on 20 Nov 2023 19:56 collapse

It probably would help, as Google couldn’t connect their advertising services that easily with YouTube, and both parties would have to be more independent.

InevitableWaffles@midwest.social on 21 Nov 2023 03:31 collapse

Youtube is a money pit. If it had to split from Google, they will need to up monitization pronto or shut down. While I do want Google broken like Bane cracking Batman, there will be casualities. Too many parts of our internet infrastructure exist via subsidization and we use them like utilities. It is going to be messy out there if the FTC succeeds.

Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml on 21 Nov 2023 03:55 collapse

If your company need to do illegal shit to exist, your company needs to stop existing.

InevitableWaffles@midwest.social on 21 Nov 2023 04:28 collapse

Agreed. I feel the same way about youtube going as Reddit did. For some of us, it is just a fun thing. Some people need it because it is their best access to knowledge. I worry for those who need it.

LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 19:34 next collapse

Small government has entered the chat

notfromhere@lemmy.one on 20 Nov 2023 21:39 collapse

I’m not sure I follow.

e0qdk@kbin.social on 20 Nov 2023 23:11 next collapse

There are two US antitrust cases against Google right now:

The first is related to things like paying to be the default search engine on iPhone, Firefox, etc. The second is related to ad tech. Neither really directly addresses the issues that average people have with Google's behavior though, so keep filing complaints!

Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml on 21 Nov 2023 03:53 collapse

Google gets sued for this shit all the time, but do you think you’re going to hear about this on Google or Youtube?

Case in point, very few people know that they got sued for protecting multiple pedophiles as they were grooming kids on their platform.

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 20 Nov 2023 18:50 next collapse

Invidious and Piped fix this issue. You can use LibRedirect to automatically redirect all YouTube links to Invidious or Piped.

furzegulo@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 20 Nov 2023 19:05 next collapse

there’s no slowdowns on freetube either

zingo@lemmy.ca on 20 Nov 2023 19:21 next collapse

Yeah. Going with freetube desktop app (flatpak) on Linux.

No slowdown here.

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 20 Nov 2023 19:38 collapse

FreeTube is great but I personally prefer a browser-based solution

ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de on 20 Nov 2023 20:29 next collapse

Makes sense and improves privacy but they’re not going to win on speed, not even on Firefox, unless you host a private instance or use a nearby-hosted one.

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 20 Nov 2023 20:33 collapse

By default, when using Invidious, your browser loads the video right from Google, you can proxy videos through the Invidious instance but it’s disabled by default. Only Piped always proxies videos through the Piped server.

smeg@feddit.uk on 22 Nov 2023 11:57 collapse

and UntrackMe on android!

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 22 Nov 2023 13:20 collapse

UntrackMe is nice, but it’s not required for YouTube link redirection on Android as LibreTube and NewPipe natively support opening YouTube links.

smeg@feddit.uk on 22 Nov 2023 13:24 collapse

Great if you have those apps installed, but UntrackMe also does twitter -> nitter, reddit -> libreddit, and a few other services too

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 22 Nov 2023 16:35 collapse

That’s true and that’s the reason I use UntrackMe.

danielbln@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 19:47 next collapse

I don’t notice this, Firefox on Mac, YouTube Premium. Do they only do this for YouTube Free? Yep, seems like it. Terrible nonetheless of course but it explains why I never experienced this.

Fosheze@lemmy.world on 20 Nov 2023 20:38 next collapse

It’s a little weird because its definitely slower on my desktop but on my laptop (with the same account, browser, and extensions) it’s perfectly fine. I’m guessing that there’s some AB testing going on.

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 20 Nov 2023 20:49 collapse

Stop giving Google money. Use Invidious, Piped or FreeTube on Desktop, LibreTube or NewPipe on Android, Yattee with this guide on iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.

Thief@lemmy.myserv.one on 21 Nov 2023 02:19 next collapse

You can also use poptube on ios. Thats what I use.

kemsat@lemmy.world on 21 Nov 2023 04:10 next collapse

POPTube or PopTube?

Thief@lemmy.myserv.one on 21 Nov 2023 05:16 collapse

POPTube.

netchami@sh.itjust.works on 21 Nov 2023 13:57 collapse

I’ve never heard of that one, I’ll try it out

deur@feddit.nl on 21 Nov 2023 02:41 collapse

Stop being annoying.

gunpachi@lemmings.world on 21 Nov 2023 05:16 next collapse

Just install the chameleon add on and set it to chrome. Problem solved.

GaMEChld@lemmy.world on 22 Nov 2023 17:01 collapse

Is this a violation of net neutrality? They are effectively not treating all traffic equally.

MimicJar@lemmy.world on 22 Nov 2023 18:09 collapse

All current conversations surrounding Net Neutrality refer to ISPs being neutral. Since this is happening at the browser level, it would not technically be a violation.

For example streaming websites aren’t required to support Linux. It’s a dick move, but it’s not a violation to “block” users.

That isn’t to say this isn’t a dick move, it absolutely is, but as currently defined it isn’t a Net Neutrality issue.

GaMEChld@lemmy.world on 23 Nov 2023 04:53 collapse

Hmm, perhaps not net neutrality then, but it could be anti competitive maybe. Like the Internet Explorer fiasco from back in the day.