It looks as if YouTube is looking out for the best interest of its user base. Recently the company has begun to notify its users that the cause of their poor streaming experience could actually be the fault of their ISP.
These notification will pop up during videos streaming on the site when an excessive amount of time is taken to load any given video or when videos stop mid-play to initiate buffering.
Once this happens a user will be asked to click a message that pops up reading
“Experiencing interruptions?”
After a user clicks on the message they are taken to a alternate page that shows the quality that YouTube reports for their service as well as those of competitors in their area. Users will be able to compare their service directly with that of others and make the necessary changes if they so desire.
For most people they just assume that the cause of quality of streaming videos falls on the side of YouTube or other such services. Many a time I’ve had friends call their ISP about streaming problems only to be told, “Everything looks okay on our end,” or “We see some static on the line and can send someone out to take a look.”
It’s good to see YouTube taking a stand even if it is one to shift the blame that many people wrongfully associate with them. While they don’t say that this is in any way meant to shame ISPs into providing better service, we get the feeling that that’s exactly the case and something that in turn will help them get Google Fiber brought into more markets as an alternative.
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