Does YouTube suck for anyone else these days?

I like YouTube. It's great, et cetera. However, I've noticed it having scads of loading problems over the last 6 months. I haven't moved, and I've noticed it in other places, as well, so it can't just be my connection. I've heard the same from others using work computers, as well. This, despite the fact that for most of the last few years, I've had YouTube videos load quite quickly. Now, they sometimes fail to do so even on lower resolutions. And they positively crawl on higher ones most of the time.

So: has anyone else noticed this? Has anyone else noticed more problems, in particular, over the last 6-8 months?

You mean when you are loading your videos on it, not just watching them?

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I don't understand the distinction; they load while you watch them. The problem I'm having is that my viewing will often catch up to it and cause the video to stop while it attempts to load more.

Nope, not having problems with video loading times at all. Even longer ones, one hour videos for example load up fast.

I've had a few problems too with loading where it catches up and has to buffer.

I still use it though for movie trailers.

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No, not really but an annoying surge in adverts before vids. Sometimes super annoying ads that you have to watch for 30 secs before said vid.

I've found that it's much better to install an add-on that lets you download the youtube video. Takes a couple of minutes before you get to watch it, but there's zero frustration and no buffering issues.

I am finding a lot more movies seem to be recently loaded on there.

I have had some issues with some videos, but other times the issue passes. But I have to agree that I hate the advertisements you have to watch and can't just skip through after 5 seconds.

Thankfully most of them seem to be the ones you can skip after a few seconds and not the ones that are forced.

I can't really complain about the ads; the site's free, for crying out loud. I remember what it was like without it. The Internet was not nearly as amusing.

Anyway, thanks for the replies. Sounds like this might be a regional thing, or maybe a coincidence that just happens to apply to the several places I've tried this on. It's been really bad, though.

I was using my brother's internet earlier with my laptop on the WiFi.
Had the same buffering problems and his connection is stupidly fast, I think he's got near 1gb per second, every site loads the split second you click on it.

YouTube is the only site that has buffering problems.

Someitmes those advertisements make the difference between not watching a movie at all because by putting the ad on the copyright holder lets it stay on.

Youtube has become a 3-ring circus of subscriber-whores and in-yer-face advertising. I've noticed lags in the videos lately, it sucks to have to reload the page to get a vid to play.

Try LiveLeak if you want a fun site-- they have a single row of vids that are updated one at a time, and more of a community feel with the comments, however the vids are more brutal, as are the comments, so beware.

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recently, like this week, they changed something about the player, and now it looks all messed up and nothing will load... it might be a plugin problem or something that i'm missing... but it worked fine before... also just generally there have been more and more ads over the last few months. i wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, it was just a solid 30 sec ad before each video.

I was having lag issues on YT just yesterday.

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a lot of lag issues in the past month or two, though it has lessened up a bit

I have major buffering issues, videos stopping and having to re-load.

Sometimes I have to pause a video for a few minutes before I can watch it because it is loading so slow. I think it has to do with the amount of people online at one time. Shouldn't really matter though.....I don't know. All I know is it's annoying.

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The constant ads are obnoxious.

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