this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Mainly that Google intentionally makes its sites (like YouTube or Google Docs) slower and less useable when they detect you're using Firefox, and/or ad blockers (which you need Firefox to use, so same difference).
It's mostly fixable with add-ons and userscripts (and eventually, one hopes, with an antitrust lawsuit), but it's still a hassle.
Unfortunately, with the FTC rolling back net neutrality protections, I don’t see an antitrust lawsuit happening, or succeeding, anytime soon
how do I find out more about this and what scripts do I need to make the sites faster again on Firefox
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/youtube-responds-to-delayed-loading-in-rival-browser-complaints, for instance.
Or https://www.zdnet.com/article/former-mozilla-exec-google-has-sabotaged-firefox-for-years/, for an older one.
As for how to fix it, Mozilla tend to do a pretty good job of eventually working around Google's bullshit, so keeping the browser updated is a good first step.
Since Google tends to roll this stuff out regionally and doing A/B testing, though, the best way is to identify what specific handicap they're hassling you with (which specific features don't work or don't work right, when they work properly on chrome), and look for an updated add on or userscript to fix that particular issue.
Or you can just look for a generic YouTube or Google Docs "enhancer" add on and hope it fixes the issue without making the whole user experience too different from what you're used to.
thanks. I keep Firefox updated. the fact that changing the user agent gets the delay is pretty damning evidence
Would you happen to know whether this is something that a UserAgent spoofer would suffice to get around?
At one particular point it was, if I recall correctly, though Chrome also (mis)implements some standards its own way, so Google might also use that as a form of attack against anyone who implements them properly, much like Microsoft did in the bad old IE6 days...
It's all a silly arms race, though, with Google coming up with new ways to enshittify the web for anyone not using Chrome or using ad blockers and Mozilla and ad blocker (and alternative YouTube frontend) developers trying to figure out what they broke this time and how to fix it, so what worked yesterday might not work today and work again tomorrow.
It's all a profoundly stupid waste of everyone's time and resources (all for a few more ad views) which will hopefully end up with Google losing their monopoly position on the web like the Internet Explorer bullshit did for Microsoft, but will keep being a major hassle for everyone until it does.