Screenshot showed channel results with empty circles, not the initials chip —
i.e. an avatar URL was present but the image was failing to load. Two causes
addressed:
- The image proxy fetched googleusercontent/yt3 with NO User-Agent, which the
CDN 403s for some avatars → blank. Now sends a browser UA + Accept header.
- A failed avatar now swaps to the initials chip (onerror → outerHTML) instead
of hiding the img and leaving an empty circle. Also proxy protocol-relative +
deeper-subdomain YouTube image hosts. img-proxy tests green.