YouTube's goal is to help you compare the video speed from your ISP with similar numbers from other ISPs. "Video speed is an important part of your viewing experience since it determines the amount of time you need to wait before you can start watching a video. It is also an important factor in determining the quality of the video you can watch. By making the video speed history data available, we hope to better inform you of speed issues as they relate to your viewing experience, and give you the ability to compare your speed numbers with other users in your region," mentions YouTube.
Average speed in the US = 3.62 Mbps
Average speed in Japan = 5.53 Mbps
Wired thinks that "this level of transparency could pressure ISPs not to slow down data from YouTube, because it will be clear to consumers if a given provider offers a poor connection". It's also a great way to compare ISPs and to test your Internet connection, but you should take the results with a grain of salt because the speed numbers are only for YouTube video traffic.
Tip. Some YouTube videos have an additional option in the contextual menu: "show video info". This feature shows information about the video and some streaming stats.
445Kbps Here in Egypt :S
ReplyDeleteGreat initiative. Good buzz for YouTube. Good information for consumers. No FCC bureaucracy. Yay!
ReplyDeleteA whistle-blower I hope.
ReplyDeletemight have something to do with their fiber-optic hi-speed internet they just announced?!
ReplyDeleteI think there will only be pressure on ISPs in urban areas. My ISP is CenturyTel in a rural location. They are the only ISP available. My average YouTube speed is 1.11 (in rural Oregon, US), compared to a state average of 4.4Mbps). There really isn't anything I can do about and I have the feeling I'm not alone in this situation.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks for the insightful post.
Of course the test video loads at 15mbps, but when I try loading almost any other video I have to let it buffer for 2 minutes. They need to fix some bandwidth bottlenecks or something.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to order more bandwidth or for our ISP's to give us what we pay for now.
ReplyDeleteThis is good tool for comparing 2 different ISP speeds,hope it will help me a lot in chosing the best ISP.
ReplyDeletethis is bullshit
ReplyDeleteif i load the test video i get 5mbit and no problem
if i load a real youtube video i get less than 1mbit and its not even playing without stopping, at 360P. Any video.
hansenet youtube proxy is lagged since 2 months like that
and it proves the speed test is bugged. either its not getting videos from the youtube proxies, either it just has priority. sort it out.
ps: if you want to test your isp speed do yourself a favor and use speedtest.net, youtube test is only a test with youtube.
ps: a youtube proxy is a transparent proxy, you can't disable it. when you load a youtube video you'll see a "personalized" lurl that is like xxxx-your-isp-or-nearest-peering-xxxx.....yimg (or youtube) .com, that's your nearest youtube proxy
30.54 Mbps from March 17 to April 15 in Irving, TX
ReplyDelete