YouTube experimenting with GIF-like video previews
According to a post on its help forum, YouTube began to experiment with video previews on the desktop a couple of weeks ago, albeit in limited fashion. But now the company seems to be ready for a wider rollout, as some users have started seeing the feature on YouTube’s latest dot-com interface. As pictured above, soon you might notice a 3-second teaser when your computer’s pointer hovers over a thumbnail, though it only works for videos that are longer than 30 seconds.
YouTube does warn creators not to worry if their video doesn’t have a live preview, since not every one of them will — that criteria is going to depend on “topic and content,” the company explained. Either way, this seems like a good idea to keep viewers more engaged as they’re browsing the site.
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