Facebook set to finally launch auto-play video ads in news feeds

The funny thing is that with the current implementation of auto-play ads on the mobile FB apps, the moment I see a video animating from Instagram, I scroll past it even faster because it's distracting and usually not worth the 15 seconds.

I admire your decision to separate yourself from the user experience angle of this and focus on it from a business perspective.

Nevertheless, I hope that this little decision will be enough to put a lot of people off of Facebook because I'd rather see something like this fail than for an application I used to use as an example of pretty good UX and model of simplicity succeed with ad advertising technique normally lumped together with pop-up ads and fake buttons on download sites.

In short, to use a simple, easy to understand phrase: auto-play video ads are lame.

That said, I'm willing to be proven wrong. Maybe they'll come up with some way to make it unintrusive, but that isn't really the point, is it?

As a business owner, I do my best not to antagonize those who use my services. Auto-play video? Not only distracting and annoying, but a drain on batteries.

I think Facebook will find this drives people away.

Consider your attempt to maliciously hack my attention adblocked.

I do NOT WANT to see your bullshit. That is why I am not looking at it. If you subvert my lower-level programming like the evolved motion-startle response to grab my attention, this constitutes misuse of my mental hardware. You do NOT have my consent to do it, and the fact that I live in a world where some services come with attached advertising does NOT constitute consent. I shall continue to use them, with adblock turned on.

I'm hoping they'll be able to provide more than just video ads, though. Small businesses tend to not have video creative ready, and compared to the better produced and more entertaining ads that will probably work best on FB, they may be paying a high CPM for pretty poor performance.

Regardless, if it helps more brand ad dollars move into online and mobile, I'm all for it because it's good for our entire industry. I think this could be the biggest ad product in mobile to date, and I'm sure we'll learn a lot.

OR, people won't care, and you and I are the small minority who bother to block them or boycott said websites,

Looks like you missed the part about everyone moving to 'mobile'

If you need a rush of adrenaline one day, try turning it off and visiting some well-known news sites... I was pretty sure the machine I saw it on (parents' computer) was infected. Then realised my parents really need adblock.

Well, yeah. The article says "so as to not use the users' data plans", so this seems like it's a mobile feature.

The source of our WiFi is increasingly being capped as well so I'm not so sure this is even an acceptable approach. Just because I have WiFi single doesn't meet I have an unlimited amount of bandwidth to load your crappy video.

Detecting WiFi is a clever hack that works for right now, but for those using cell wifi routers, cell hot spots or with crappy ISPs that have a low cap it won't matter.

It's an API available via the Android and iOS SDKs, respectively.

How to detect the network connection type on Android: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2802472/detect-network-co...

How to detect the network connection type on iOS: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7938650/ios-detect-3g-or-...

Is your language "English (US)"? I think that was necessary for Graph Search.

Back when animated ads were the thing - maybe they still are, I don't know - I quickly realized it was difficult for me to read an article with a monkey bouncing back and forth right next to it or there was an epilepsy-inducing banner telling me I was the 1000000000000000th visitor. It's not even a matter of being annoying, but of literally degrading the value of the content of the site. Back when I couldn't block the ad outright, I would simply resize the window and scroll it off-screen.

I used to use hostfile-based ad blocking and then started using AdBlock when it came along. The thing is, I'm not opposed to ads on principle or anything. I'm just opposed to ads that wreck the product being provided in exchange for the ad. It's like "Sure, I'll let you use my site, but I get to punch you in the head in exchange."

There are plenty of sites I've disabled AdBlock on, although I figure the odds of an ad on any random site being relevant or interesting to me is about 10000 to 1. I spent a while with AdBlock off on Facebook and thought the ads being shown me were really pathetic given how much Facebook should know about me and be able to target me.

But in general, I'm only opposed to ads when they ruin whatever they are being used to monetize. It's one reason I stopped watching broadcast TV now that ads consume 1/3 of the actual viewing time. Autoplaying videos definitely fall in that category, and I normally keep my computer muted anyway because the last thing I want is some stupid website blaring noise at me. I only unmute the computer if I'm specifically going to watch a video or listen to something. And let's face it, these ads will all be for banks or cars or some stupid political candidate using the movie-trailer-voice guy to tell me that so-and-so eats puppies and kittens, etc., etc. It's all just useless noise.

If anything things like this are a reason... http://www.fastcompany.com/3023263/work-smart/the-surprising...

Facebook has gotta start looking out for it's user's interests.

They were supposed to launch in october or something, and it got pushed back.

One step closer to total irrelevance. Also known as MySpacing.

A simpler idea is to stop using your account but leave it active. Make it a glorified address book. Every now and then you can check in and accept friend requests if necessary. I know a few people who use it like this (not because they dislike Facebook but just because they spend very little time at a computer). It seems to work for them. They get the benefits without the constant ads and stream of info they don't care about. Of course if privacy is your concern this isn't a good suggestion but otherwise it's a happy medium.

Facebook is more robust and convenient than email (huge amounts of videos, pictures, "statuses" in one place, plus messaging and a way to search for profiles. Email doesn't have those). Phone calls aren't asynchronous, you both have to find the same block of time to talk. I wish I could just grab a coffee with my friends on the other side of the country.

Facebook is actually a pretty great tool for communicating.

> Get their emails/phone numbers, call them once in awhile, grab a coffee.

That works great for those ex-classmates or work friends, who just so happen to live in the same town (or same area of a large town) as you, but that's not why I use FB -- I use it to keep tabs on family. Family members too busy for an hour-long weekly phone call (or I'm too busy to make time for 5-10 of these weekly calls) and too far removed for in-person visits to be viable every few months.

Your advice may work for some, but it falls flat for a lot of common use-cases.

But how will I find out about Burner parties and extra late night end at 8AM events? Just kidding, I'll just look at the telephone polls outside the coffee shop.

Of all the comments I've seen about deleting a facebook profile, this one resonated very strongly with me. But at the same time I feel a slight sense of trepidation over deleting it. Decisions, decisions.

That's a wonderful sentiment that I simply cannot do.

I have friends whose only interaction with "The Internet" is Facebook. They don't email/IM/chat. It's AOL 2.0 basically.

I could call, but I'm busy and they are busy. (family/work has a way of doing that). Coffee is right out as they all live over 500 miles away.

Sometimes asynchronous communication on a shared platform is a good thing.

[edit] k3n said it much better than I: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6921737

I don't care about personal conenctions (got an email / phone no. to everyone), but there are some communities that pretty much depend on facebook. If you start dancing and are interested in events, you pretty much have to be on facebook. That's where the announcements / updates happen. That's where you find out where various people / teachers will be going. (at least that's the case for the UK and swing/blues)