YouTube now shows 3-second preview for every video

Streaming site mocked by an adult content website, suggesting that YouTube probably stole the idea from somewhere else

Video streaming giant YouTube has rolled out a new update to its platform which will now let users get a three-second preview of each video before they play it.



“We are improving how you make video watching decisions by launching an experiment for video previews for desktop,” reads a statement by YouTube on Google's product forum.

“Users will be shown a 3-second preview of the video while browsing YouTube on desktop, giving you better sense for what each video is about.”

Hovering over a video thumbnail on desktop now shows you a 3-second preview. Try it out! pic.twitter.com/jqIc1UxloZ

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) July 13, 2017

Since June, YouTube been updating its platform to feature the moving thumbnails which are automatically selected from the first half of the video using AI. Currently, creators are not able to select the preview that is shown.



Video previews are currently available on a select few browsers that include Chrome versions 32 and up and Opera version 19 and are not available on mobile devices.

However, YouTube is not the first streaming service to offer such a feature. For that matter, the streaming site was mocked by the adult content website PornHub, suggesting that YouTube probably stole the idea from somewhere else.

https://twitter.com/Pornhub/status/885672263365738496