Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away.

db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Technology@lemmy.world – 2613 points –
Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away.
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It's bizarre how blatent this is. Google has so much power over web standards that Mozilla have to work really hard to make firefox work, but YouTube don't bother being subtle or clever and just write 'if Firefox, get stuffed' in plain text for everyone to see.

Google has been doing this kind of thing for a while. If you try to use Google Meet in Firefox, you can’t use things like background blurring. Spoofing Chrome works in that situation as well.

And the stupid thing is that all I use Chrome for is Meets... And that's it. Do they really think they win me over?

Not you or me. But most people, yeah.

That is, as always, the problem: it works for them. The average Joe isn't going to implement a new filter into ublock...

How does one "spoof" chrome?

You can change your user agent string, the text your browser uses to tell the web site you're looking at what browser it is, either via your F12 developer tools menu or via an extension.

The most convenient way is with a browser extension that changes your user agent. You can also change it in the developer options of most browsers.

It works for me now. Only took them 8 years

In my other comment I provide a link to the US DOJ anti-trust complaint center website.