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YouTube Issuing "Report Cards" On Carriers' Streaming Speeds

Posted by Unknown on from the not-like-you-can-do-anything dept.

OakDragon (885217) writes In the shadow of the "Net Neutrality" debate, Google's YouTube has created a service to report on your carrier's usage and speed, summarizing the data in a "Lower/Standard/High Definition" graph. You may see the service offered when a video buffers or stutters. A message could display under the video asking "Experiencing interruptions? Find out why." Find your own provider's grade here.

23 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Grade is on the curve by paiute · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How long until Comcast sends YouTube a bill for carrying the HD content?

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    1. Re: Grade is on the curve by grahamm · · Score: 2

      If not to the ISP, who should Netflix or YouTube pay the costs to? They don't bear them directly, because the traffic is necessarily much cheaper for them to carry than it is for the ISP.

      They should pay the costs for their connection to/at the Internet Exchange Points (IXP) the same way the ISPs pay for their connections to the IXP.

  2. Dupe... by by+(1706743) · · Score: 4, Informative

    Posted by samzenpus on Thursday May 29, 2014 @10:04PM from the how-do-you-stack-up? dept.

    http://tech.slashdot.org/story...

    1. Re:Dupe... by Robadob · · Score: 2

      + the actual google page has been around for atleast 6 months, it was posted to HN that long ago.

    2. Re:Dupe... by OakDragon · · Score: 2

      Submitter here... let me apologize, it was submitted in ignorance. I just saw the story today.

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    3. Re:Dupe... by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      That's ok. What I don't understand is how you get a dupe accepted by the moderators. Can anyone submit anything and it gets onto the feed, or do you have to include special keywords?

    4. Re:Dupe... by ray-auch · · Score: 2

      And it still says "results not available for your location. Check back soon".

      Bit of transparency on where it is available and when it might be elsewhere would be nice - how many years is "soon" ?

  3. Good idea, but terrible implementation by otter42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    First, what gives with the goofy webpages that try to scroll like pages of a book? One of the wonderful things about a web page is for it to be long and easy to scroll through, instead of requiring me to scroll in order to get to the next text section. That makes it really awkward to go back and forth.

    Second, where can I search for other people's results? I want to switch to RCN in Boston, how does this webpage help me know how they're doing?

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    1. Re:Good idea, but terrible implementation by mythosaz · · Score: 4, Informative

      No such button on my view of the page, which includes "Results from my location are not yet available, check back later."

    2. Re:Good idea, but terrible implementation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      'Designers' have never liked the web and love to break it - this is the result.

      ...says the dickhead who deliberately abuses this site's "code" post format option that he knows wraps his post in <tt> tags. I want to allow other, responsible posters to post their code snippets using the code format and have those code snippets render in monospace font while de-douchebagging Arker's format abuse.

      There is no discriminator function for that.

    3. Re:Good idea, but terrible implementation by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not intended to help you switch. It appears intended to send you running to your ISP to complain...

      If you are not going to switch, why should your ISP care if you complain?

  4. Time Warner cable is actually better? by nimbius · · Score: 2

    of the two major providers in my area, Time Warner is actually better (for youtube video quality) which i found rather shocking. That having been said, they do suck on a number of other levels.

    1. things like recursing your own DNS with unbound or other software will get you added to their redirector for "unwanted/malicious traffic." basically, you're robbing them of SRVFAIL ad revenue and they dont like it. Encrypting lots of traffic or using encrypted IRC also seems to trigger this shit, which is easily circumvented by not using their DNS.
    2. signup isn't mandatory if you handle your own DNS, but again if you dont then expect to never get to the internet. Signing up means downloading their software, creating an email address, agreeing (again) to the ToS despite signing it on installation. you also get to opt into their advertising.
    3. two words: bulk mail. You'll get at least 3 or 4 letters a month reminding you to upgrade to the bundle or a higher data rate. higher data rates arent required when you null-route advertising servers and use noscript/adblock.

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    1. Re:Time Warner cable is actually better? by D'Sphitz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There's something fishy with these results. The Google report rates the connection from my small, local ISP at "Standard Definition", and then when I compare providers in my area apparently Comcast is "HD Verified". This just doesn't add up.

      The problem with this is that I have available, and pay for, fiber broadband advertised at 90mbps, and speedtest.net concludes that I am getting what I pay for (92 up/35 down). I have a Roku or other streaming media player in every room and it's not unusual to have multiple HD movies streaming at the same time in different rooms, in addition to tablets, xbox, and other internet activity.

      So I have to conclude that either Google isn't testing my actual connection as it appears to and is instead showing an average from my ISP, or the results are fixed and the big, shitty cable companies have "sponsored" their own "HD Verified" results. The latter seems more likely, I've had Comcast internet in this area before fiber became available and it doesn't compare, and even the cheapest packages at my ISP are pretty quick.

    2. Re:Time Warner cable is actually better? by tepples · · Score: 2

      Google isn't testing my actual connection as it appears to and is instead showing an average from my ISP

      Bingo. The report card shows an aggregate of tests performed on YouTube users among your ISP's customers in that city.

  5. Foreplay? by Bob9113 · · Score: 2

    I'm not saying I think they know it now, or are intentionally moving in this direction, but consider the market forces involved: Is this, Netflix's similar effort, and ISP throttling, ultimately just foreplay to getting in bed together? They have the potential to really harm each other, and that has to get through to them eventually.

    Seems to me, barring common carrier or another path to true net neutrality, both sides have more to gain by colluding than by fighting. If big content and big ISPs work together, they could create a barrier to independent ISPs and content.

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    1. Re:Foreplay? by StripedCow · · Score: 2

      They are forcing ISPs to uphold their end of their deal with the customer, which is the good part.
      However, the ISPs will probably improve service speed for _only_ Youtube as a result.
      This creates a barrier to other video services.

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  6. Doesn't work, and won't tell me why by sir-gold · · Score: 2

    Trying to click "your results" just gives me a popup saying "Results from your location are not available".
    It doesn't tell me what my "location" is, and it doesn't give me any option to change the location (since the "change location" link is on the results page that it refuses to show me)

    If the location auto detect fails, it should give the user an option to manually set the location (or browse other locations), instead of just refusing to give any results whatsoever.

  7. Some Problems by DERoss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The vertical scale in the charts has no indices or any indication of what is measured. I see the statement to the right "Daily video activity is averaged
    over 30 days.", but it does not say what is really averaged. Is this MB/sec, percentage of available bandwidth, or what?

    In any case, the throughput of a broadband connection is not the only issue in moving large amounts of bytes. I am having a problem with software for an HP printer. Today, HP advised me to download the entire software package for that printer, approximately 1.4 GB. However, HP's server could not deliver event 300 KB/sec into my 15 MB/sec broadband connection. There are servers delivering video that cannot keep up with playback speeds.

    When I cannot get downloads a MB/sec rates, I generally blame the server at the other end and not my broadband provider. After all, I can immediately try a different download from a different source, and get my full 15 MB/sec.

    1. Re:Some Problems by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd say it's actually a little more complex than that. It depends not just on the source server but on every point between the source server and your machine. In the case of the Netflix/Comcast spat a while ago, for example, the problem wasn't Comcast's network, or Netflix, or the network between them, but Comcast's connection to the network between them -- so it was Comcast's fault, but not in a way that would show up with connections to other servers that took a different path.

      And regardless of whether or not *you* blame YouTube when it's slow, many users do, which is why Google is doing this.

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  8. needs a few tweaks... by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    like user feedback... display test results from users of the listed ISP's in the area...

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    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
  9. Great, but.... by countach · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I had a look at them a few days ago, and I had no idea how to interpret the graphs. If I'm tech savvy and I don't know what they mean, God help the average person.

  10. Re:Swap DASH for HTTP by sir-gold · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is a plugin for firefox (no idea why it needs a plugin, but whatever) that allows you to access the "hidden" youtube settings. One of these settings allows you to disable dash entirely. There are also settings to disable auto-quality, and to set a default quality level.

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

  11. Re:Swap DASH for HTTP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you disable DASH, doesn't that mean you just can't get 1080p video and are stuck with 720p at best?

    I myself just drag-and-drop the youtube links into vlc and let it play them directly. VLC doesn't do DASH either, so according to this bug it is stuck at 720p.

    But at least there are no ads and no autoplay and it is easy to resize, etc, etc.