Google Video Quality Report tests your ISP's performance for YouTube playback

Google on Tuesday announced its new project, dubbed Video Quality Report, which focuses on testing the video quality and the connection speeds of Internet service providers (ISPs).

The service will be available in Canada at first and will expand to more number of countries with time.

Google will test the ISP by playing back a high definition video from YouTube. The ISPs will then be graded as "YouTube HD Verified" if it is able to play 90 percent of the 720p HD videos.

The firm is said to have two goals behind implementing this test, according to Shiva Rajaraman, director of product management at YouTube.

"We wanted to give users a measure of performance that they can truly understand ... the other side is we felt this would be beneficial for ISPs too, because now they can describe their service and the various product offerings and price points they might have to their customers in a way that they can truly understand: You can access YouTube in HD on my ISP, or not," he stated to the Financial Post.

After the test, Google is said to show a graph showing the video quality based on the time of the day. The users are also given the option to compare their ISPs with other ISPs in the area. It has been also understood that the test showed positive results in Canada (with most of the ISPs giving good results), prompting Google to say Canada may be one of the first HD Verified Countries.

"Canada was very impressive for us in many ways because there's so many HD verified ISPs in the region," Mr. Rajaraman said.

"On some level, we think Canada could be one of the first HD verified countries out there. So, we wanted to start with a market where clearly people are doing it well, and we wanted to lead with the best.