Gregory's ServerWild: Google confirms it *is* throttling YouTube load times for some viewers. Firefox users reported the issue today. Google says, instead, it’s supposed to tackle ad-blockers regardless of the browser used https://404media.co/youtube-says-new-5-second-video-load-delay-is-supposed-to-punish-ad-blockers-not-firefox-users/
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48 comments
  @corbin @josephcox No I know, they're declaring war on their customers and users who use ad blockers. Its pathetic. @grs @josephcox if you are blocking ads and not paying for premium then by definition you are not a customer @corbin @josephcox You're right, in Google's eyes we're the product. And our refusal to become so, and decide what we want and don't want in our browser, we're the bad guys. @corbin @josephcox I paid for Premium right up until they pulled this adblocking bullshit. So I refuse to give any money to a company who pulls such tactics. They're making money hand over fist as it is.  @corbin @grs @josephcox Lol, yeah right, like they don't make plenty of money by selling your data and reporting the legitimately-generated view @bamboombibbitybop @grs @josephcox google doesn’t sell user data because it hoards data about you and used that to target its own advertisements, if you’re blocking ads then there’s nothing to pay the server bills or the creators with. also if your answer is “youtube should just be subsidized by google search revenue” then that’s opening the door for antitrust action that could just kill YT entirely.  @corbin @bamboombibbitybop @grs @josephcox ad blockers have been around for decades. Google is enshittifying its offering because it needs to squeeze more revenue from its users. Instead of making their offering more appealing, they're making it worse in the hope that users will pay them to put it back. @tob @bamboombibbitybop @grs @josephcox “enshittifying” is making people watch short ads or pay for premium to pay for countless terabytes of storage and bandwidth, global CDs, and revenue sharing with creators? okay. @corbin @bamboombibbitybop @grs @josephcox How does adding a 5 second delay to videos not qualify as making their product worse. Also, the content creators are getting screwed, too. Not by ublock. @corbin @tob @bamboombibbitybop @grs @josephcox finaly i find this man from meme irl :blobcatthumbsup: yes it is certainly the case that it is completely coincidental that the 5000 ms pause never activates on Chrome but always activates on Firefox. where is my sarcasm font?  @dashdsrdash @corbin @grs @josephcox local end user learns about AB testing  @tay @dashdsrdash @corbin @grs @josephcox It's at the least incredibly suspicious that changing your browser header (regardless of account or cookies) instantly resolves the issue though... @Purple @tay @dashdsrdash @grs @josephcox it could be resetting some cache, or a bug, or a lot of other things because web development is kind of a mess @corbin @Purple @tay @dashdsrdash @josephcox Or its dirty tricks, just like it looks like. Some strange alphabettispaghetti apologist logic there. @grs @Purple @tay @dashdsrdash @josephcox google says it’s targeting ad blockers and the screen recording that started all of this literally has ublock origin in the toolbar. please use basic thinking skills before calling other people names, thanks. @corbin @grs @tay @dashdsrdash @josephcox The same video also shows that the problem goes away after spoofing the browser header, while uBlock is still active... So I'm not entirely sure if that argument is entirely valid @corbin @tay @dashdsrdash @grs @josephcox Obviously! But considering how confinient this is for Google we should be very skeptical about things like these happening. Especially as a lot users seem to report the same issue while there are no known reports from this happening to chrome users. If Microsoft ends up making chrome slower on their websites compared to edge in a similar manner I'd also be concerned about it. @corbin Why are you so intent to fight for googles good name in this thread? @doug @Purple @tay @dashdsrdash @grs @josephcox two reasons: 1. there needs to be good evidence for claims, redditors and a bunch of blogs covered a few reports and didn’t dig into it, 404 was the first one that actually pieced something together. at this point the people alleging a conspiracy just want to believe in it. 2. people should be paid for their labor, making youtube videos (and hosting them) is labor. the people who want to watch the video without ads or premium contribute nothing. @doug @Purple @tay @dashdsrdash @grs @josephcox i’m not “fighting for google,” i’m annoyed because this entire discourse is ridiculous. it’s a bunch of people who have decided that 3 sec ads are the end of the world, and are looking for any excuse to justify it, and the latest one was claiming youtube was blocking firefox users. we now know that was false. if you don’t like ads, pay for premium. if you don’t like either of those things then eventually we get no youtube. that’s how this works. @corbin @doug @Purple @tay @dashdsrdash @grs @josephcox You aren't fighting for Google, you're just repeating their talking points uncritically. Which, since this is the internet, amounts to the same thing. The tiny percentage of youtube's market using ublock to skip ads on YouTube aren't the problem and never were. They are the bulwark. The canary in the coal mine. When that population spikes, it's always because the content providers have changed the agreement for the worse. @grs @josephcox i knew something with the sluggish video load times, im not even using an adblocker @josephcox lol recently i've been using invidious more often to watch videos so i haven't noticed this @nekothegamer @josephcox imagine suffering from google shenanigans on their video website instead of just watching the video
    Edgelord of the 2000s: Fuck M$. Welcome Google, our new overlords! Edgelord of the 2020s: Fuck Google. Same old. Same old. @josephcox @josephcox I would start telling everyone to switch to peertube, but I don't think my word would make much difference anyway.  @josephcox@infosec.exchange  @josephcox I've recently noticed your links failing, and now have a clue  @josephcox "hey, we know our ads are often a security risk and potentially dangerous, so rather than enforcing any sort of advertising standards or moderation (which might cost us money) we're going to penalize the folks trying to stay secure." -Google, probably @josephcox It's amazing what Google can get away with by claiming they're just A/B testing or that the issue in question was an oversight. Their excuses would be more believable if they didn't have a history of introducing bugs/performance issues that just so happen to only effect browsers using competing engines. Google's excuses are especially hard to believe this time around due to Mozilla saying Firefox would still support the functions that adblockers depend on.  @josephcox I've recently discovered that _Google Meet_ simply won't finish connecting to a call with some of the stronger uBlock Origin settings on. I haven't done anything like an exhaustive investigation, but this was never a problem before.  @josephcox "it’s supposed to tackle ad-blockers" Tons of sites misidentify me as using an ad blocker because of my privacy settings in Firefox. Probably not unrelated. @josephcox It feels like in the past two years the topic of net neutrality has fallen a bit out of fashion, but oh boy is it always relevant @josephcox Yeah, I don't buy Google's excuses for a second, considering their history of covertly irritating users into switching to Chrome (i.e. death by 1000 cuts). In general, people would be able to tolerate ads if they were properly vetted, were less numerous, and were less intrusive. But since doing that doesn't make the line go up, this will never happen unless companies are essentially forced to. @josephcox It's impressive to me how eager companies have been lately to make their product worse and less useable in order to "make money". They're REALLY banking on being absolutely irreplacable.  |
@josephcox For all the people who shouted at us Firefox users when Chrome was introduced that Google would pull this shit eventually, all I can say is... See, we fucking told you.