<story><title>YouTube embeds are heavy and it’s fixable</title><url>https://frontendmasters.com/blog/youtube-embeds-are-bananas-heavy-and-its-fixable/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mmmmmbop</author><text>The author says they don&amp;#x27;t believe that a lighter version has been shown to reduce engagement.&lt;p&gt;I, on the other hand, fully believe that.&lt;p&gt;The recommended lite-youtube-embed project page has a demo of both lite and regular players [0], and the lite version takes &lt;i&gt;noticeably&lt;/i&gt; longer to start playing the video.&lt;p&gt;Every additional millisecond of load time will reduce engagement, and here the difference is more on the order of hundreds of milliseconds or more.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;paulirish.github.io&amp;#x2F;lite-youtube-embed&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;paulirish.github.io&amp;#x2F;lite-youtube-embed&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>skybrian</author><text>I suspect you’re right, but on the other hand, I think it’s useful to think critically about whether starting the video faster is worth it if it makes the web page that it’s embedded in load slower. The “every millisecond counts” argument applies to the web page too. If the user bounces off the web page, they won’t get to the video anyway.&lt;p&gt;Also, maybe it’s fine if people don’t want to play the video? Personally, I appreciate it when a web page includes a summary, so that I can &lt;i&gt;avoid&lt;/i&gt; watching a video. (I prefer not using YouTube for anything other than listening to music or occasionally watching a movie.)&lt;p&gt;Video can be a useful tool, but consider whose interest it’s in for you to encourage your audience to watch more TV. Is it really serving your users?&lt;p&gt;Even when I do want to watch a video, it’s selective. One thing I find rather frustrating about YouTube’s redesign (on desktop) is that it devotes so much screen real estate to promoting videos other than the one you’re actually there to watch. I’d prefer fewer distractions.</text></comment>
<story><title>YouTube embeds are heavy and it’s fixable</title><url>https://frontendmasters.com/blog/youtube-embeds-are-bananas-heavy-and-its-fixable/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mmmmmbop</author><text>The author says they don&amp;#x27;t believe that a lighter version has been shown to reduce engagement.&lt;p&gt;I, on the other hand, fully believe that.&lt;p&gt;The recommended lite-youtube-embed project page has a demo of both lite and regular players [0], and the lite version takes &lt;i&gt;noticeably&lt;/i&gt; longer to start playing the video.&lt;p&gt;Every additional millisecond of load time will reduce engagement, and here the difference is more on the order of hundreds of milliseconds or more.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;paulirish.github.io&amp;#x2F;lite-youtube-embed&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;paulirish.github.io&amp;#x2F;lite-youtube-embed&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nnf</author><text>I would &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; rather wait a few hundred milliseconds for a video to start during the few times I decide to watch an embedded video than to wait for the full video player to load every single time I visit a page with an embedded video that I&amp;#x27;m never going to watch. Similarly, I would &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; rather have every stoplight I approach be green for me rather than having every light be red but for not very long.</text></comment>