Are they on crack? I'm a little curious to see what's so great about the new browsers that the old can't hack it on.
^ I've noticed little if any difference, really.
It's not about the browsers user interfaces, but more about the engine that runs in them. Newer engine == lots more possibilities for a rich, interactive website, as YouTube is trying to be.
At least, that's the idea. The problem is; I see no mention of Safari (same engine as Chrome) in the start post, but I do see mention of IE8 (which, while having fixed a few bugs, still has nowhere near the capabilities of any modern browser).
So, a probable reason would be to save costs on trying to make their site compatible for older browsers; especially IE7 and IE6 are notorious for incurring a high cost relative to how modern your website is.
Oh, believe me, I know all about how annoying it can be to support multiple browsers, but older firefox and IE7 aren't going to break unless you do something to break them. I guess I'm just surprised they'd come out and say upgrade your stuff before anything even goes wrong
Yes, but they are. Each time new functionality gets added to a website, it can "break" older browsers in that aspect. It depends on what the functionality is, how many of the browser bugs you'll encounter, and such. Usually, every addition means an extra 5% to 40% spent on supporting an older browser. If you try to support multiple old browsers, that percentage goes up. If you support everything but IE6/IE7, that percentage goes way down.
It's all about cost really; it is economically viable to support older browsers? It depends on your userbase; how many of them are using broken browsers like Internet Explorer?
If this is true... and to be honest, I have a hard time believing it... then it's most likely that they're ditching Flash and going for the embedded video and other additions as per the HTML5 standard. This is supported in the browsers mentioned in the OP as well as the current version of Safari.
Seems true, but modern technology (like the HTML5 video/audio tags) still isn't supported in Internet Explorer 8, so that can't be it.
However, a big point is that Internet Explorer is usually the browser used by people who can't upgrade; they're at work for example, and have to do with whatever they have because the old intranet won't function otherwise. People who know enough to use modern browsers usually either have the ability to update to a newer version, or have it updated by the ICT department -- those browsers don't affect the use of an old intranet; you could use IE for that.
Has IE8 actually become as stable product though? I admit to never really have used it but some of the comments on line (specially as Windows 7 has gone through Beta and RC have been less than flattering about it).
IE8 has become a stable product yes. At the least, it's more stable, efficient and easy to use then older IE versions, even if it doesn't support modern web technologies yet.
And frankly if youtube are going this way they're fucking stupid.
It depends on their userbase; if the userbase doesn't use old browsers much and youtube is willing to bet on the fact that they'll upgrade, it isn't such a stupid move; it'll save time and costs, the less time one has to hack their website for older browsers (and accompanying bugs and faults), the more time can be spent on the development of new features.
However, I still don't think this is somethine YouTube'll actually do; they neither have the guts for it, nor the userbase that would make such a move doable. If most of your users use IE (at work, for example), you can't simply tell them to upgrade; they won't -- they can't.