The social networking giant seems to be testing a new feature in its video platform where you can drag a video around the page by clicking on a specific icon just like how you would see on high end Samsung phones.
This is a handy feature since it will help you multitask in a sense where you can watch the video while still scrolling on the homepage. It was noticed by one Adam Haworth on Twitter:
Is this new? Facebook lets you pop videos out of the normal player, into a floating, sticky, moveable player. pic.twitter.com/TqvWC4duRN
— Adam Haworth (@aahaworth) July 7, 2015
@ow click the icon next to the volume icon pic.twitter.com/jgTZXfceX2
— Adam Haworth (@aahaworth) July 7, 2015
Facebook has been improving its video experience for some time now and it has been encroaching on YouTube’s turf by the number of views. The company wants to take the video viewership crown from YouTube and it is currently doing 4 billion views per day which is quite impressive. Videos that can be dragged around will most certainly boost views since they’ll make users be more inclined to view more videos. Facebook also scores a higher percentage of videos watched on mobile (75%) than YouTube (50%) and if the feature is implemented on mobile too, Facebook will be a very desirable platform for watching videos online
The online video market is all about the audience and the advertising potential: Facebook has the audience (1.4 billion users ) and it has the potential (revenue per user is $0.73). Facebook rolls ads automatically so in the sense the floating ads on your feed will feel like walking in a street where the floating ads are a form of digital signage. Now what Facebook needs is some sort of a curated feed where we can view and easily find these videos.
