YouTube Playback Sucks On Non-Chrome Browsers




/ 6 years ago

YouTube Playback Hobbled By Design on Non-Chrome Browsers

Is Google Stifling Competition?

According to Chris Peterson, Technical Program Manager at Mozilla, Chrome has an unfair performance advantage over other browsers when it comes to YouTube performance. Both the video sharing platform and Chrome web browser of course, being owned by the same parent company Google.

Peterson claims that YouTube is 5x slower on Firefox and Edge than in Chrome. He explains that this is because YouTube’s Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated Shadow DOM v0 API. Which is only in the Chrome browser.

“YouTube serves a Shadow DOM polyfill to Firefox and Edge that is, unsurprisingly, slower than Chrome’s native implementation,” says Peterson.  “On my laptop, initial page load takes 5 seconds with the polyfill vs 1 without,” he adds.  Subsequent page navigation performance is comparable.

What Evidence Points to This Being Sabotage?

YouTube Playback Hobbled By Design on Non-Chrome Browsers

While this move seems suspicious, this is hardly evidence of sabotage. However, the fact that Internet Explorer 11 is served the old design by default is a clue. Google could easily serve the same non-Polymer based design on non-Chrome browsers. Instead, they opt to default both Firefox and Edge on the slower version.

Google’s Chrome currently holds the largest market share among browsers with 61.2%. Internet Explorer is a distant second at 12.14%, with Firefox at 11.27% close by. Lastly, Microsoft’s Edge web browser has a 4% market share.


Topics: , , , , ,

Support eTeknix.com

By supporting eTeknix, you help us grow and continue to bring you the latest newsreviews, and competitions. Follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram to keep up with the latest technology news, reviews and more. Share your favourite articles, chat with the team and more. Also check out eTeknix YouTube, where you'll find our latest video reviews, event coverage and features in 4K!

Looking for more exciting features on the latest technology? Check out our What We Know So Far section or our Fun Reads for some interesting original features.

eTeknix Facebook eTeknix Twitter eTeknix Instagram eTeknix Instagram
  • Be Social With eTeknix

    Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Reddit RSS Discord Patreon TikTok Twitch
  • Features


Send this to a friend
})