What YouTube is Doing
We want to make the web a faster place for everyone. Here's what we're doing.
High streaming quality whenever possible
(adaptive bitrate)
  • With Adaptive Bitrate, we break down each video into multiple segments (typically just a few seconds long) for each available video quality.
  • YouTube detects how smoothly a video is playing and adjusts the quality to account for temporary fluctuations in bandwidth or congestion. This can amount to a large number of decisions that must be made in real time to find how to play a single video.
  • For example, if you walk away from your Wi-Fi router, the video might switch from 720p down to 480p as the signal becomes weaker.
Bringing YouTube closer to you
(networking and caches)
  • We've invested billions of dollars in the bandwidth and infrastructure necessary to bring our services as close to your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) front door as possible, for free.
  • We have an open peering policy for our internal network, which means we'll directly interconnect with any ISP who can reach our 70 points of presence worldwide without charge.
  • We often deploy servers within your ISP's network, vastly reducing the distance the video has to travel and minimizing the chance for congestion.
  • We continuously scale our infrastructure and run advanced traffic-control algorithms that re-route your traffic quickly in the event of outages, capacity constraints, or degraded performance.
Bigger hits with fewer bits
(codecs)
  • Like everyone else, we compress video data so it can be efficiently transmitted across the Internet.
  • At YouTube, we work tirelessly on increasing the streaming quality of the video that can be transmitted in as little data as possible, optimizing existing compression technology and championing new approaches.
  • We're developing new video formats like WebM to give you even higher definition while requiring less bandwidth.
Video Quality Report
See video quality results for Internet Providers in your area.
The Methodology
Learn what it takes to be a YouTube HD Verified Internet Service Provider.
YouTube Support
Troubleshooting tips for improving video playback.