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submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

YouTube blames ad blockers for slow load times, and it has nothing to do with your browser | The delay is intentional, but targeting users who continue using ad blockers, and not tied to any browse...::YouTube has clarified in a statement that users who use ad blockers will have a suboptimal experience regardless of their browser.

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[-] zephr_c@lemm.ee 173 points 11 months ago

Yeah, sure. That's why it happens on Firefox even without an adblocker, and goes away when using a user agent switcher to claim you're using Chrome instead of Firefox while using an adblocker. Because it's toooooooootally about adblocking.

[-] 1bluepixel@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

I tried this exact scenario and didn't see any difference in load times. I'm using an ad blocker and it's definitely sluggish, but switching to a Chrome user agent made no difference.

[-] zephr_c@lemm.ee 26 points 11 months ago

Yeah, people seem to be having very different experiences with it. It might genuinely be them rolling out different versions to different people to bug test it or something like that. Even if that's the case I still think its probably not unintentional that it hurts Firefox more. They do that too much for me to believe it's an accident.

[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

It's hard to tell these days when there's so much A/B testing and stuff going on. I haven't run into this at all personally.

[-] Gestrid@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

It's actually been confirmed that the 5-second wait happens regardless of browser. Even with Chrome.

[-] Goronmon@lemmy.world -2 points 11 months ago

How thoroughly was this tested? Because you can summarize a lot of these types of timing differences with one word.

Caching.

And from my experience people tend to overlook this when running casual tests like this.

[-] MuThyme@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

This is 100% anecdotal of course, but I've noticed weirdly inconsistent behaviour. I have one tab I permanently keep open for YouTube and that one loads videos really fast. If I open a second tab by following a link from that main tab, then it partly loads the site and sits there for a weirdly long time before any content even appears.

I've got a really fast connection too, and nothing else was having issues. This whole thing is bizarre.

[-] RedWeasel@lemmy.world 81 points 11 months ago

So if I use Firefox I have a choice between a 5sec delay or a 5sec delay and ads. That seems like an easy choice.

[-] Gigan@lemmy.world 61 points 11 months ago

I will stop using youtube before I stop using adblockers.

[-] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

My opinion too. A lot of people say "Oh I couldn't live without it, I'm constantly watching vids on there" so you ask for recommendations, look them up, and it's 99% brain-rotting video porridge

[-] havokdj@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

What, you mean to tell me you don't wanna watch MUTAHAR LAUGH COMPILATION AT FNAF FREDDIE FAZBEAR POOPING ON PURPLE GUY 3AM (GONE SEXUAL)?

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 months ago

Have you tried Odysee or Peertube yet?

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 42 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[-] variants_of_concern@lemmy.one 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The other day my wife asked me "what's that pipe website you use to be able to watch YouTube videos" then I realized it was because she got blocked by YouTube haha

[-] 73rdnemesio@infosec.pub 17 points 11 months ago

Android TV: SmartTube

iOS (Sideload or Jailbreak): uYou+

MacOS/Linux/Windows: FreeTube

Every Browser: Invidious

[-] bruhduh@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Android: newpipe, libretube, clipious, skytube, revanced

[-] Gestrid@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Why does nobody ever list ReVanced for Android on these lists?

[-] MrOxiMoron@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

Funny how soon it will seem as if chrome is the most used browser while it's actually Firefox with a user agent change

[-] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I can already imagine the bullshit wired articles about how users are Switching from Firefox to Chrome, remember how they tried to claim people were uninstalling ad blockers, when in reality they were switching to uBlock Origin, that was pretty funny.

[-] Companion1666@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

ask the mainstream users if they using firefox lol

[-] charonn0@startrek.website 9 points 11 months ago

I've got Firefox and Ublock, and don't see any delays, warnings, etc. It may have to do with the fact that I'm not signed in with an account.

[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

This also appears to be in an A/B test or something similar. It isn't happening for everyone (yet).

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Remember that just like with everything YouTube doesn't apply changes to all users across the whole site simultaneously. They always do gradual rollout with randomized user impact. So as to not upset or raise too many alarms at the same time. It's been their MO for about 10 years now.

[-] Archr@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

As has been the MO of many large sites for a while now. It's called blue-green deployment.

[-] bitsplease@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah and while I'm sure it is useful for minimizing outrage at controversial changes, it's mainly to prevent rolling out major bugs to too many people

[-] havokdj@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

If that's blue green deployment, then what is red yellow deployment?

[-] BeautifulMind@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah it looks like they've switched away from the 5-second penalty for having ad blockers to counting down the number of videos you'll be shown, then after 3-2-1 it's 'adblockers violate youtube's toc'

[-] XTornado@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

To be clear that is not new, that was a thing already before. Like from around July some people were already getting that.

[-] 018118055@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 months ago

Sundar can diaf

[-] BlackSkinnedJew@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 11 months ago

I'm using DNS level ad blocking, anyone else not experiencing anything weird?

this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
330 points (97.4% liked)

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