Youtube comments only showing when logged in: bug or feature?

Factual Questions
1

I use Chrome on Windows 10 and am usually not logged into my Google account. For a few weeks, the youtube comment sections have failed to load on any page. You only see the “load circle” (sorry, don’t know the technical term for it) in the comment area spinning endlessly, but nothing ever loads. As soon as I log into Google, the comments appear. Is this a new restriction from Google to goad me into logging in and giving them even more personal info, or is it a bug? Googling the issue didn’t produce helpful advice.

2

I hadn’t thought about it earlier because I almost never touch that POS, but I just tried to open youtube in Edge, and Edge shows the youtube comments without being logged in. Strange, but now I suspect the issue in Chrome to be a bug.

3

That’s the way it works for me in Firefox. I have to be logged in to read comments. I also get an annoying “How is YouTube today” popup if I am not logged in.

Dennis

4

That’s puzzling because it works without login in Edge. Google shouldn’t have any incentive to get people to switch from Chrome to Edge to circumvent this restriction.

5

Google has a major incentive to get people to login, and has pushed this into recent builds of Chrome. Yes, you can subvert some of the googleness by using another browser, but Google has also been pushing hard to make the internet incompatible with other browsers. That is, in fact, the reason for Edge, where MS replaced MS technology (IE) with Google technology (Edge).

6

I’m never logged into my Google account while browsing Youtube, and I see all comments just fine. I use Firefox.

7

If it was purposeful, it would be trivial for them to put in some sort “You must be logged in to see comments.” message. The fact that some browsers can get to sounds like it’s not purposeful. Are you running any extensions like an ad-blocker?

8

Yes I do, I run ScriptSafe (but all scripts for the youtube.com domain are allowed) and AdBlock (which is activated), but I didn’t think an extension is the culprit because they are also active when I run youtube logged in and the comment section works.

ETA: have to test youtube with AdBlock deactivated, I’ll report later.

ETA2: nope, didn’t make a difference, comments still not displaying with AdBlock turned off.