To better accommodate those with low-bandwidth connections, YouTube is testing a stripped-down viewing page designed to ensure videos load and play quickly.
“A consequence of rolling out higher-quality video, HD and, more recently, 1080p, is playbacks might suffer if bandwidth or computer processing power is low,” the company says. To counter this where needed, the “Feather” player defaults down from HD to standard definition; and related videos, comments, and other familiar features from the main “watch page” are “kept to a minimum.”
The page also uses “advanced web techniques for reducing the total amount of bytes downloaded by the browser,” YouTube says, and “this results in a user experience that aims to keep things simple and the videos loading and playing quickly.”
YouTube adds Feather is “a work in progress” and may not work for all videos.
December 7, 2009
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