Google Is Testing Autoplay Videos Directly In Search Results (thenextweb.com)

For a select group of individuals, Google has enabled autoplay videos in Search. "We are constantly experimenting with ways to improve the search experience for our users, but have no plans to announce [the feature] at this time," a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have similar features that were introduced fairly recently. If you find automatic videos to be a nuisance, now is the time to let Google know how you feel about this "feature."

Comments

Alternative headline

[Sebby]

"Google is Testing Pissing Users Off Even More Quickly"

Re:Alternative headline

[Cyberpunk Reality]

Yep. I haven't seen this (at Google or Bing), although with my browser and addon choices I'm probably unlikely to. But the day I do is the day I walk completely away from Google and don't look back.

Re:Alternative headline

[rogoshen1]

yep. kill it with fire. autoplaying *anything* is annoying as all get out.

Re: Alternative headline

[Z00L00K]

EspeciaÅly when at work.

And it's pretty common to search for stuff when at work.

Re:Alternative headline

[goose-incarnated]

I don't want auto play videos (my addons wouldn't allow it anyhow). I don't want auto play dvds, I turn that crap off.

I don't know why anyone thinks people do, or should, want that. People are just lazy.

Google appears to have forgotten how and why they toppled altavista and yahoo.

About that

[alvinrod]

"We are constantly experimenting with ways to improve the search experience for our users"

Then why the hell are you using autoplay videos?

Re:About that

[Hognoxious]

As my physics teacher used to say: if you know the result beforehand it's not an experiment - it's a demonstration.

Re:About that

[alvinrod]

I don't think I'd want to associate my brand with something that is just going to piss people off. There are plenty of products I refuse to buy or companies I won't do business with over annoying practices similar to this.

First they screw up news, now the search...

[Blinkin1200]

I disable video in the browser... replaced with click to play, but I would rather not wait until the video download completes.
MSN is my current substitute for Google News, anyone find anything else?

Internet is a pull system,

[CptLoRes]

stop trying to make it a push system instead.

Re:Google copying Microsoft?

[mccalli]

In fact Google recently pushed me over to Bing with their terrible, terrible Google News re'design'. It's truly awful, and Bing News is closer to the older Google News layout so off I went.

what a coincidence

[Anonymous Coward]

For about a year I've been testing not using any google product for any reason.

Pretty happy with results so far.

Re:What is needed is a hardware mute button.

[rogoshen1]

step 1. buy cheap headphones
step 2. cut both cables off at the plug
step 3. enjoy looking like the cool dude whose smartphone still has an antenna.

Configure your browser to stop it

[Picodon]

In Firefox (about:config), setting “media.autoplay.enabled” to “false” normally cures the problem. Obviously, it’ll affect all sites, including those where autoplay is largely expected (for example, YouTube), but it’s easy to get used to it.

Re:Configure your browser to stop it

[Picodon]

For that (completely valid) use case, Firefox has “media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground” (set it to “true”). Of course, that’s no longer necessary if you disabled autoplay entirely with “media.autoplay.enabled”, which affects both foreground and background tabs, and which you might like better.

I mentioned YouTube in particular because, in my experience, when autoplay (“media.autoplay.enabled”) is disabled, the YouTube player appears to be started but seeking, and requires clicking twice on the “play” button (once to pause, and once more to really start the video), which is a bit befuddling the first time. It’s only a glitch, though, and I still prefer that rather than having videos start in foreground tabs for all sites.

Websites should pay users when anything autoplays

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless I choose to start the download, it's not your bandwidth, I am paying for it not you, so I should have the choice of if I want to use it. Unless you want to pay for my internet..

Netflix too

[jetkust]

Netflix did a similar thing to their roku app, and it's horrible. What do these companies gain by doing this? The user experience is no different than an intrusive add. And if companies start paying to get their videos to autoplay, then it IS an add.

It's Google .vs. Apple

[chrism238]

And, fortunately, Apple is blocking the autoplaying of videos in its next release of macOS.

Design by committee strikes again.

[Anonymous Coward]

a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have similar features that were introduced fairly recently

So what if they have ? This just screams of "me tooooooo!" and is not a valid reason to do something.

Rule #1 of embedded videos, NEVER EVER autoplay unless that video is the main content of the page. Ignoring that just pisses off your users.
We've all been there, followed a link to an interesting page and started reading it. After a few seconds there's an annoying voice waffling on (and it's always one of two people that do the voice overs.. a manically depressed male who couldn't give a toss what he's reading, or a hyperactive female who sounds like she's just drunk a gallon of Red Bull) about something completely irrelevant.
  So now you're frantically scrolling around the page trying to find the damn video amongst all the other flashing animated adverts to try and stop it so you can get back to the content you were part way through.

Come on Google, you want to sell advert space, so why give viewers yet another reason to install an ad blocker ?

To improve the search experience

[OneHundredAndTen]

It is bad enough for big companies to indulge in all sorts of dubious practices, but, I, for one, find it even more irritating that they regularly take us for complete imbeciles. Google, what you want to do is get more money from your search stuff. So, be bold and say so. Do not pretend you are doing this autoplay nonsense, which is bound to annoy most people, because you want the best experience for your customers. Which you do not. What you want is more money from your customers - a very different proposition.

How can I disable all autoplaying videos?

[SoftwareArtist]

I'd really like advice on this. I absolutely never want a video to autoplay. Period. NoScript seems to block most of them, but occasional sites still get through. Are there other tools I should look at?

In Firefox...

[Picodon]

In Firefox (in “about:config”):
- set “media.block-autoplay-until-in-foreground” to “true” to disable autoplay in background tabs (until you switch to them).
- set “media.autoplay.enabled” to “false” to disable autoplay in all circumstances (see my comment earlier about a small glitch in YouTube).

Dear Google

[Ol Olsoc]

I really want to blow through my dat cap. What is the best way to do that?

Oh, you've already got an implemation planned?

Thank you for being so responsive!

Re:do no evil?

[JohnFen]

Google gave up on "don't be evil" a rather long time ago.