For those trying to make it in the YouTube game, the video count provides a very tangible tipping point for engagement: 76 views? Pass. More than a million? Must watch.
Lately, though, you may have noticed that more people are uploading their (often annoyingly vertical) videos to Facebook—the company has reported 50 percent growth in views from May through July, with an estimated 1 billion views every day. Now the rest of us will be able to get in on the quantification with a brand-new video counter:
Over the past year we’ve made several improvements to make it easier for people to discover and share great videos on Facebook. And with an update that will start rolling out this week, people will be able to see how many views a video on Facebook has received. Views will be shown on public videos from people and Pages, to help people discover new, popular videos.
That’s right: With this feature and improved video ranking, the most difficult part of the Internet—finding the viral videos that everyone else has already seen—just got way easier. But more importantly, you’re about to see a lot more sad-sack Facebook status updates from people finally confronted with the unpopularity of their shakily recorded video content.
Meanwhile, we’ll be hanging out on Vine.
