Netflix created a website to test how fast your shows will stream, and it’s genius
Have you ever been trying to hang out with Netflix and suddenly everything starts loading so slow? When you’re in the middle of a binge, that’s the LAST thing you ever want to happen, and Netflix knows that. They know you want your Kimmy Schmidt, and you want it now.
Last week, Netflix launched a brand new website to help us through this streaming and buffering problem. Simply titled fast.com, it’s a website that shows you how fast your internet downloads. It’s pretty cool.
“We all want a faster, better Internet, yet Internet speeds vary greatly and can be affected by other users on your network or congestion with your Internet service provider,” NetflixVice President of content delivery architecture, David Fullagar, writes on their website. “When you’re experiencing streaming issues, fast.com allows you to check the download speeds you’re getting from your Internet service provider.”
It’s the last part of the above quote that’s pretty important. While fast.com is cool for us to use, and useful to check our download speed during a binge, this is also very frightening if you happen to be a big internet provider. This new site is all about net neutrality, which is a very complicated thing to explain, so just watch this John Oliver video instead. Basically, if you’re paying for internet that is supposed to download at 50 mb, and you get onto fast.com and see that your internet is only running at a speed of 35 mb, your internet provider has some ‘splaining to do.
Like, for me, I pay QUITE A LOT for fast internet at my apartment, yet when I got onto fast.com, it showed that I was running 13 mb slower than what I’m paying. WHAT GIVES, INTERNET?
So go ahead and check out fast.com. The number you see might have you yelling WHAT THE FUDGE? like Kimmy at your internet.
