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I use individious because the current youtube frontend is bloated and slow on firefox. Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend instead of blocking f

I use individious because the current youtube frontend is bloated and slow on firefox. Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend instead of blocking frontends that other people prefer.

popcalc 2y ago
Firefox users represent a very small portion of the user-base. Also it's in their interest to nudge you towards chrome, no? Among minority market-share browsers Safari gets more attention because the users are wealthier -> ad impressions can be sold for more.
- pmtcc 2y ago
  Safari users are not necessarily wealthier than Firefox users. Apple skews more mainstream and Firefox skews more techies.
  - ipaddr 2y ago
    Apple users are likes AOL users of yesteryear. Firefox users are like freenet users. AOL users have more money but are less techie. Firefox users are more techie but broke.
    - pmtcc 2y ago
      Sure but let's see average user data first before making these claims. Aren't Apple products popular among kids? Kids are usually poor and would bring the wealth average down.
      - kevincox 2y ago
        But kids often have parents who aren't poor. IIRC children's toys are a pretty profitable and segment.
        pmtcc 2y ago
        The point is wealth per user, not potential wealth per user. Parents don't always buy their kids the same high grade devices that they use.
dsalfdslfdsa 2y ago
>Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend They have. Do you know how many ads they can stuff into people's faces now? Youtube is unbearable without ablock. If there are people who are able to watch it like that, then it shows just how long you can boil the proverbial frog.
- verdverm 2y ago
  Paying for YT premium is even better. No ads and you support the content creators
  - dsalfdslfdsa 2y ago
    I hear this a lot, and would love to see some figures. If I'm a heavy YT Premium user, is it possible for my views to be worth less than ad-generated views?
  - nraynaud 2y ago
    you still get the baked-in ads, and I get weird ads when watching video embedded in other websites.
    - kelnos 2y ago
      SponsorBlock generally works well for auto-skipping the baked-in ads, but of course only works on the website, not in the YT app.
      - throwaway48476 2y ago
        Revanced has a patch that makes sponsor block work on the android app.
    - skyyler 2y ago
      If you get baked-in ads, it's because of the editor of the video you're watching, not YouTube.
  - 2y ago
apantel 2y ago
I’ve been using Firefox for maybe 15 years. It has always been great. But in the past year or so, I’m finding that more and more web experiences are buggy and slow in Firefox, which is really frustrating. I don’t know if it’s that developers don’t do sufficient QA testing in Firefox, or the creators of Firefox have fallen behind. Either way it doesn’t bode well. I’m being forced to reach for Chrome more and more just to get certain websites to work, especially ChatGPT. It is way buggier in Firefox than Chrome. It feels like OpenAI doesn’t have a single person doing QA testing in Firefox, and why should they? It’s a sliver of the market. If anyone at Mozilla/Firefox is reading this, this is really bad. This is the kind of thing that signals the death of something in the not too distant future.
- BeefWellington 2y ago
  Set your user-agent header to be a recent chrome version. I browse the web this way and I've in total found exactly one problem on any site I've visited in the past year.
- snthd 2y ago
  Firefox has a built in mechanism for reporting issues to https://webcompat.com https://webcompat.com >People expect websites to work regardless of the device or browser they are using. When a site works in one browser but not another, that is most likely a web compatibility bug that we want to know about. Issue search: https://webcompat.com/issues https://webcompat.com/issues https://webcompat.com/issues?q=youtube https://webcompat.com/issues?q=youtube
- dsvf 2y ago
  Some of this is intentional on websites from Google. Google sheets has a very very annoying bug where if you want to multiply two values in a cell formula and press the asterisk key, the cursor jumps to the left of the asterisk. You then have to manually place the cursor to the right of the asterisk (since pushing the right arrow key may instead jump to the next cell to the right), breaking any typing flow whatsoever. However, if you fake your Firefox user agent to chrome (but change nothing else), the bug disappears. I recall reading a post here on HN that Google has been found from time to time to intentionally cripple the FF user agent, which in turn led me to "discover" the sheets bug fix. This does not change much about what you wrote, but it's at least something to do against malicious incompatibility
wannacboatmovie 2y ago
YouTube is borderline unusable now. For the last 6 months when I browse to YT - on any device - I get a blank page (no suggested content) with a decoy search box in the center of the page. When I click it, focus moves from the decoy to a second, real search box which unfurls at the top, but the cursor does not move and requires a subsequent click. This means on mobile I have to tap twice - in two different locations on the page - before I can start typing a search query. Google needs to fire their entire UI/UX staff, this is "my first website" levels of usability. 2004-era websites were more functional.
- ipaddr 2y ago
  Try the firefox mobile browser
- brokenmachine 2y ago
  >2004-era websites were more functional Modern computing in a nutshell.

I use individious because the current youtube frontend is bloated and slow on firefox. Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend instead of blocking frontends that other people prefer.

popcalc 2y ago

Firefox users represent a very small portion of the user-base. Also it's in their interest to nudge you towards chrome, no? Among minority market-share browsers Safari gets more attention because the users are wealthier -> ad impressions can be sold for more.

pmtcc 2y ago
Safari users are not necessarily wealthier than Firefox users. Apple skews more mainstream and Firefox skews more techies.
- ipaddr 2y ago
  Apple users are likes AOL users of yesteryear. Firefox users are like freenet users. AOL users have more money but are less techie. Firefox users are more techie but broke.
  - pmtcc 2y ago
    Sure but let's see average user data first before making these claims. Aren't Apple products popular among kids? Kids are usually poor and would bring the wealth average down.
    - kevincox 2y ago
      But kids often have parents who aren't poor. IIRC children's toys are a pretty profitable and segment.
      - pmtcc 2y ago
        The point is wealth per user, not potential wealth per user. Parents don't always buy their kids the same high grade devices that they use.

dsalfdslfdsa 2y ago

>Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend They have. Do you know how many ads they can stuff into people's faces now? Youtube is unbearable without ablock. If there are people who are able to watch it like that, then it shows just how long you can boil the proverbial frog.

verdverm 2y ago
Paying for YT premium is even better. No ads and you support the content creators
- dsalfdslfdsa 2y ago
  I hear this a lot, and would love to see some figures. If I'm a heavy YT Premium user, is it possible for my views to be worth less than ad-generated views?
- nraynaud 2y ago
  you still get the baked-in ads, and I get weird ads when watching video embedded in other websites.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    SponsorBlock generally works well for auto-skipping the baked-in ads, but of course only works on the website, not in the YT app.
    - throwaway48476 2y ago
      Revanced has a patch that makes sponsor block work on the android app.
  - skyyler 2y ago
    If you get baked-in ads, it's because of the editor of the video you're watching, not YouTube.
- 2y ago

apantel 2y ago

I’ve been using Firefox for maybe 15 years. It has always been great. But in the past year or so, I’m finding that more and more web experiences are buggy and slow in Firefox, which is really frustrating. I don’t know if it’s that developers don’t do sufficient QA testing in Firefox, or the creators of Firefox have fallen behind. Either way it doesn’t bode well. I’m being forced to reach for Chrome more and more just to get certain websites to work, especially ChatGPT. It is way buggier in Firefox than Chrome. It feels like OpenAI doesn’t have a single person doing QA testing in Firefox, and why should they? It’s a sliver of the market. If anyone at Mozilla/Firefox is reading this, this is really bad. This is the kind of thing that signals the death of something in the not too distant future.

BeefWellington 2y ago
Set your user-agent header to be a recent chrome version. I browse the web this way and I've in total found exactly one problem on any site I've visited in the past year.
snthd 2y ago
Firefox has a built in mechanism for reporting issues to https://webcompat.com https://webcompat.com >People expect websites to work regardless of the device or browser they are using. When a site works in one browser but not another, that is most likely a web compatibility bug that we want to know about. Issue search: https://webcompat.com/issues https://webcompat.com/issues https://webcompat.com/issues?q=youtube https://webcompat.com/issues?q=youtube
dsvf 2y ago
Some of this is intentional on websites from Google. Google sheets has a very very annoying bug where if you want to multiply two values in a cell formula and press the asterisk key, the cursor jumps to the left of the asterisk. You then have to manually place the cursor to the right of the asterisk (since pushing the right arrow key may instead jump to the next cell to the right), breaking any typing flow whatsoever. However, if you fake your Firefox user agent to chrome (but change nothing else), the bug disappears. I recall reading a post here on HN that Google has been found from time to time to intentionally cripple the FF user agent, which in turn led me to "discover" the sheets bug fix. This does not change much about what you wrote, but it's at least something to do against malicious incompatibility

wannacboatmovie 2y ago

YouTube is borderline unusable now. For the last 6 months when I browse to YT - on any device - I get a blank page (no suggested content) with a decoy search box in the center of the page. When I click it, focus moves from the decoy to a second, real search box which unfurls at the top, but the cursor does not move and requires a subsequent click. This means on mobile I have to tap twice - in two different locations on the page - before I can start typing a search query. Google needs to fire their entire UI/UX staff, this is "my first website" levels of usability. 2004-era websites were more functional.

ipaddr 2y ago
Try the firefox mobile browser
brokenmachine 2y ago
>2004-era websites were more functional Modern computing in a nutshell.