Seems that FF is not the target:

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/17zq1jj/youtube_is_reportedly_slowing_down_videos_for/ka0utpq/

Why would they spend resources to enrage 3% (at most) of their users?

There's me thinking I had stuffed up my pFsense config. It had me duped into thinking I was responsible!

I've been using Firefox for about a year now, and I've definitely seen that 5 second loading delay in Firefox. Every time, the page partially loads like it does in the video, then sits for 5 seconds, then populates all the video thumb nails. It was driving me knows, made me think my Firefox was screwed up, or internet routing issues between me and Youtube.

Those assholes, how malicious!

Not happening for me currently, but that definitely sounds like something Google would do. Good thing Firefox lets you easily change your user agent.

I noticed the YouTube website sometimes has a 5 second delay or so before properly loading in with Vivaldi recently. Not sure if that's related in any way.

Not that I think Google is a great company, but why is this on its own proof of anything based on this single persons video evidence? In my single person test I don't see that 5 second delay when using Firefox and browsing around Youtube. Seems far more likely to be an issue with this persons browser setup than something Google did to me.

Antitrust lawsuit, here we go!

~~Don't be evil.~~

Ignoring all the other obvious reasons, FF is always superior to Chrome for YT because of its simple PIP.

This is a must have, especially if I’m at work and want to keep up with any myriad of live events.

Is it messing up in Smarttube too? Smarttube keeps buffering for me, or maybe it's just a bug.

Wait. Again?

Oh, this is about the delay if you're using a full adblocker? I'd assumed this was about the awful choppy rendering performance I get in FF Mobile when it's just starting up a vid (which smooths out after about 5 seconds). I just use FF on Android to be able to run YT vids in the background or with my phone-screen locked.

sounds desperate. I'd be selling google stock if I had any, are they really so dependent on loans that interest rates are killing them or is this more AI fuelled bullshit?

I'm A YouTube Premium subscriber, and I've been noticing this delay on my TV for a few days now - a very noticeable, long pause when opening the home screen until the thumbnails are loaded. I'll explicitly check other places too now, I'm not sure if it's also happening in Firefox for me.