Are you experiencing slow loading videos? If you are, whose fault is it? Could it simply be that your router isn’t fast enough? Could it be that the video source’s servers are slow? Or could it be that your internet service provider isn’t as fast as they claim that they are? There are a variety of reasons why we might experience slow video loads, but Google seems to want you to think it could be your ISP’s fault.
Recently Quartz discovered that Google has added a new “tip” to slow-loading videos, as you can see in the image above. The blue bar reads, “Experiencing interruptions”, followed by a “Find out why” button by its side. While there are plenty of reasons why videos could be slow to load, the website that Google directs users to seems to place most of the blame on ISPs.
Why is this important? Well there have been a lot of talks about net neutrality, which is basically saying that ISPs should not not biased as to who gets more bandwidth. For example AT&T’s Sponsored Data program allows companies to buy bandwidth to serve videos to users that won’t eat into their own mobile data plan, which has some questioning if this could be a violation of net neutrality.
Netflix has embarked on a less subtle route by actually pointing their finger squarely at Verizon. That being said, Google’s website will also help compare your speeds against other ISPs in the area, and have also ranked providers with either being capable of delivering videos in HD, Standard Definition, or Lower Definition.
From what we can infer, Google seems to suggest that it is up to the ISPs to determine if your video playback, or web browsing in general, is smooth, but what do you guys think? Does the responsibility fall 100% onto the ISP, or do video providers like YouTube and Netflix have a responsibility as well?