Facebook Launches Embeddable Video Player

Facebook is getting serious with video. After setting videos to autoplay last year, it is now offering a way to embed the videos using HTML code.

YouTube offered the same type of embed code a few years ago. Now, most traffic to YouTube comes from embeds from other sites, showing the benefit of adding embed code.

The Facebook embed will show the title, number of views, and a link to the actual Facebook video. The embed code is much longer than the typical YouTube slug, but can be shortened by removing the description and title.

Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference was all about drawing more people to Facebook, by removing the barriers that links normally present. When showing a video, news article or GIF, Facebook wants this all to be done inside the app or website.

Offering the embed code might seem like the opposite, pushing people away from the main news feed, but it is a smart move to grab more attention on Facebook’s video service.

That said, Facebook video is still cluttered and there is no real way to subscribe to a channel, and set the news feed to only show videos. The lack of clarity makes it much harder for YouTube personalities and video producers to actually make an income or a stable audience.

Perhaps these issues will be resolved in the next few months, as Facebook looks to make its video platform even bigger.