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I wonder if Youtube doesn't run CI tests against other browsers than Chrome or if those test cases just aren't covered. According to an analysis in the Firefox

by elaus 6y ago

I wonder if Youtube doesn't run CI tests against other browsers than Chrome or if those test cases just aren't covered. According to an analysis in the Firefox bugtracker (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1697551 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1697551) it seems like the error occured because a non-standard attribute is used in the JS code that only Chromium implements. Looks like the changes are being rolled back though. Geniunely happy to see that as Youtube hasn't such a good track record of fully suporting browsers not based on the Chromium engine. I think performance on Firefox is still pretty bad with the new UI because of some inperformant polyfills for Shadow DOM code?

agilob 6y ago
They have a history of such changes. YT has been breaking user-experience on non-chrome browsers for years now. Between 2015-2017 they were racing with the new codecs of which none were supported on Safari or Firefox, so browsers simply stopped playing videos for several days or weeks.
BugsJustFindMe 6y ago
> I wonder if Youtube doesn't run CI tests against other browsers than Chrome They have a strong financial incentive to break functionality in browsers that aren't theirs. Why would they ever care to test?
- Gibbon1 6y ago
  Making the web buggy on firefox means we're in the extinguish phase for alternate web engines. Soon there will only be chrome based browsers. And then once that happens, they'll make it harder and harder to build alternative browsers around chrome.
  - jhasse 6y ago
    Microsoft will fork Chromium in that case.
    - eitland 6y ago
      Maybe, but it wouldn't help much: They too would be happy to get rid of ad blockers.
- SpelingBeeChamp 6y ago
  Not really. They have a strong financial interest to have as many eyeballs as possible watching YouTube, because only then can they show ads. I don't see how breaking YouTube for a portion of the world population is a sensible part of that plan.
  - ojnabieoot 6y ago
    A lot of people have Chrome installed alongside Firefox or Edge or whatever and will just try the video somewhere else. So YouTube actually gets more revenue and Chrome gets free advertising. If a major website works on Chrome but doesn’t work correctly on Firefox most users will tend to blame the browser instead of the website and think “I stopped using Chrome because of the memory issues but at least it’s reliable.” The logic even sounds superficially reasonable.
  - pantalaimon 6y ago
    For most people, if YouTube does not work in Firefox, they will not switch to a different video platform. They will switch to Chrome.
  - T-hawk 6y ago
    It's a trade-off. Which way do they gain more money? From showing the YouTube ads to Firefox users, or from getting users into the Chrome ecosystem for however that is monetized?

by elaus 6y ago

agilob 6y ago

They have a history of such changes. YT has been breaking user-experience on non-chrome browsers for years now. Between 2015-2017 they were racing with the new codecs of which none were supported on Safari or Firefox, so browsers simply stopped playing videos for several days or weeks.

BugsJustFindMe 6y ago

> I wonder if Youtube doesn't run CI tests against other browsers than Chrome They have a strong financial incentive to break functionality in browsers that aren't theirs. Why would they ever care to test?

Gibbon1 6y ago
Making the web buggy on firefox means we're in the extinguish phase for alternate web engines. Soon there will only be chrome based browsers. And then once that happens, they'll make it harder and harder to build alternative browsers around chrome.
- jhasse 6y ago
  Microsoft will fork Chromium in that case.
  - eitland 6y ago
    Maybe, but it wouldn't help much: They too would be happy to get rid of ad blockers.
SpelingBeeChamp 6y ago
Not really. They have a strong financial interest to have as many eyeballs as possible watching YouTube, because only then can they show ads. I don't see how breaking YouTube for a portion of the world population is a sensible part of that plan.
- ojnabieoot 6y ago
  A lot of people have Chrome installed alongside Firefox or Edge or whatever and will just try the video somewhere else. So YouTube actually gets more revenue and Chrome gets free advertising. If a major website works on Chrome but doesn’t work correctly on Firefox most users will tend to blame the browser instead of the website and think “I stopped using Chrome because of the memory issues but at least it’s reliable.” The logic even sounds superficially reasonable.
- pantalaimon 6y ago
  For most people, if YouTube does not work in Firefox, they will not switch to a different video platform. They will switch to Chrome.
- T-hawk 6y ago
  It's a trade-off. Which way do they gain more money? From showing the YouTube ads to Firefox users, or from getting users into the Chrome ecosystem for however that is monetized?