Google denies altering YouTube code to break Microsoft Edge allegation by ex-Microsoft intern

google-news-new-policies
A Google logo on the wall of The Gasworks building in Dublin, Ireland taken on September 2, 2008 Carlos Luna/Flickr

The tech giant Google has denied the allegation made by a former Microsoft intern, who claimed that the company altered YouTube code to break Microsoft Edge, thus slowing down its performance while users streamed YouTube videos.

Microsoft Edge is a graphical age browser which replaced Explorer as a default web browser in Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile and Xbox One devices.

The Verge reported on Wednesday, December 19 that a former software engineering intern at Microsoft, Joshua Bakita claimed that the California based company added a "hidden empty div over YouTube videos" that showed down streaming on Microsoft Edge.

As per a YouTube spokesperson, "YouTube does not add code designed to defeat optimizations in other browsers, and works quickly to fix bugs when they're discovered," adding that "We regularly engage with other browser vendors through standards bodies, the Web Platform Tests project, the open-source Chromium project and more to improve browser interoperability."

Even though Microsoft did not comment on specific claims made by the former intern, it told The Verge that the "Google has been a helpful partner and we look forward to the journey as we work on the future of Microsoft Edge."

Bakita claimed that "One of the reasons we (Microsoft) decided to end EdgeHTML was because Google kept making changes to its sites that broke other browsers, and we couldn't keep up."

Recently a Mozilla Firefox programme manager also claimed that a separate YouTube redesign made the site "5x slower in Firefox and Edge."

READ MORE