Google ratings take aim at Internet providers
WASHINGTON — Google is rating Internet service providers’ video streaming quality on a new website, the latest development in the fight between broadband providers and content companies over who is to blame for slow streaming speeds.
A link to the website appears when videos on Google’s streaming service, YouTube, are slowto buffer. The website quietly launched in May, but recently drew publicity.
“There are many factors that influence your video streaming quality, including your choice of Internet Service Provider (ISP). Learn how your ISP performs and understand your options,” thewebsite reads.
Google rates the Internet service providers based on how quickly billions of hours of YouTube videos watched every month load over 30 days and divides those results by provider and location to determine the quality of performance viewers get 90 percent of the time, the company said.
The website is intended to inform customers who want to view video in highdefinition how best to do it, said Matt McLernon, a You-Tube spokesman. “We are just basically providing information, not trying to tell people to change their behavior or do anything different,” McLernon said.
Google is not the first content company to send messages directly to consumers about their Internet service providers. In June, Netflix sent its customers messages that Verizon and other Internet providers were to blame for slow speeds.
Also in June, the Federal Communications Commission announced it would investigate agreements between Internet providers and content companies to determine whether they are causing slow speeds.
Netflix has been calling on the FCC to drop fees that content companies pay to Internet service providers for smooth delivery of their services to consumers.
The FCC is expected to weigh that idea as it seeks public comment on recently proposed Internet traffic, or “net neutrality,” rules, which suggest content companies should be allowed to strike “commercially reasonable” deals with broadband providers to give priority to their traffic.