Google keeps its attempt to find new ways to help users find information faster and easier. While it has been good in delivering text content upfront, it lacks somehow in delivering the best engagement in videos.
But the thing is, no one likes auto-playing videos. Not only they're a waste of bandwidth, they're also putting some load to user experience. Here is where Google introduces auto-playing previews which could be helpful in certain cases.
Google started the test in July 2017. Some users have seen Google autoplays videos, like movie traliers. On August 18th, the company is rolling out this video preview feature more widely on its mobile Search.
This feature benefits Search's carousel of related videos on some searches. Just like text snippets for text results. For example queries with large amount of video results, users can slide the carousel to see choices of videos that autoplay their previews.
Autoplay previews isn't exactly the same as autoplay videos. Google is showing only a short loop of video contents, instead of the static thumbnails. Videos will autoplay only for a couple of seconds when it is the active element on Google Search.
The change should give users a better "idea" of what videos are about, according to Google product manager Prashant Baheti who published the announcement.
The feature is being positioned as a way to enhance video results, by giving viewers a better sense of what’s inside of each clip.
The new feature is rolling out to Google's Search app on Android and Chrome for Android. If ever users find this feature annoying, they can simply to go to the 'Video' section of the Google app setting, and switch the autoplay feature to off.
Baheti notes that video previews will only automatically play on Wi-Fi connections and not on mobile connections. Options are also available in the settings menu.
Video previews will of course work for YouTube videos, and Google told that a "wide variety" of other providers are supported as well. However, newer videos that already indexed, may take some times until Google finishes creating their previews.
