YouTube Dumps Cache between Ads, Quality Toggling and Wastes Bandwidth
[I originally drafted this article two weeks ago (August 1st, but then had been delayed and other errands] Most of it has been left intact, with the exception of a brief conclusion added.] I remember YouTube before it was acquired by Google in 2006. Its interface has changed significantly over the years, for better and worse. Higher bittrate, 360 degree videos, and all sorts of analytics. But I also noticed it wastes bandwidth. I'm not referring to preloading a video that isn't watched- yes it used to play the entire video in the past, where now it only caches up to 90-120 seconds to save bandwidth in case the user doesn't watch the entire video. I'm also not referring to AutoPlay, which I also disable on all my devices that I'm logged into. I'm aware there are countless extensions that allow smartbuffering, some which are great on browsers that still support extensions (or aren't routinely filtered by Chrome, which is owned by the same company as Youtube). ...
