When you rollover the timeline of a video you're watching, you get a little popup showing a screenshot at that time, allowing you to know what's there prior to clicking and changing the video to that point. YouTube and other video sites finally adopted the same, but from what I recall, it was a feature of porn sites for years first.
Most video sites have a list of related videos, which include thumbnails. When you rollover those thumbnails on porn sites, they typically animate the thumbnail so it shows various screenshots from the video at different time periods, so you have an idea of the video content, before actually opening it. YouTube is still missing this feature, some other video sites have it, but like the above, I remember it first released on porn sites for years. Since this article is regarding PornHub, they actually further innovated on this feature. Instead of a series of static screenshots, PornHub now shows short video clips at different times throughout the related video when you hover it. Once again, not a feature I've seen anywhere else online, but when you try it, you quickly realize it'll be standard for video sites in a few years.
xVideos has an improved timeline showing which parts of a video are buffered. If you're watching a video, and it buffers the first minute, then 0-1 minute will be highlighted in red on the timeline. If you then skip later in the video to the 3 minute mark and watch for another few seconds, it might buffer the 3-4 minute time period of the video. The timeline would then show 0-1 minute in red, and 3-4 minutes in red. You could then click anywhere in red on the timeline and the video would instantly start playing, since as the timeline shows, that part is buffered and ready to go. I've never seen the same feature anywhere else, YouTube and Vimeo would display the timeline as having 0-4 minutes buffered, which is incorrect, since they don't accurately display the gaps missing.
I don't know if those qualify as innovations to you, but they're all big improvements in user experience when it comes to watching videos online, and I believe they all originated on porn sites instead of YouTube, Vimeo, or elsewhere.
>xVideos has an improved timeline showing which parts of a video are buffered. If you're watching a video, and it buffers the first minute, then 0-1 minute will be highlighted in red on the timeline. If you then skip later in the video to the 3 minute mark and watch for another few seconds, it might buffer the 3-4 minute time period of the video. The timeline would then show 0-1 minute in red, and 3-4 minutes in red. You could then click anywhere in red on the timeline and the video would instantly start playing, since as the timeline shows, that part is buffered and ready to go. I've never seen the same feature anywhere else, YouTube and Vimeo would display the timeline as having 0-4 minutes buffered, which is incorrect, since they don't accurately display the gaps missing.
How is this useful to the end user? From a developers perspective I suppose it's satisfying, but from someone who want to see titties I don't care what's buffered or not. To paraphrase steve jobs, buffer management is stupid (for a user to be doing.) While he was wrong about tasks, I'm pretty sure I'm right about buffering. I have zero action I can take wrt buffering problems. So why do I need this information?
It's useful on slower connections, if you're trying to locate and move to an area of a video that's already loaded, without aimlessly clicking around.
It also sort of acts as a bookmark, to know what you've watched. Sometimes I'll open a long video (1 hour or more), and skip around watching a few parts for 30 seconds here and there. I then realize I want to return to one of the parts I skimmed over, but I have no idea where it was in the timeline. I'll drag the slider around trying to find it again, and sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I give up. With the buffered parts highlighted, I'd at least have a better idea where it was located (or better yet, the timeline could highlight the sections I've viewed).
>xVideos has an improved timeline showing which parts of a video are buffered. //
IIRC YouTube used to do that but they stopped doing proper buffering a year or two ago. Presumably they were wasting a lot of bw sending content that was never viewed.
> they're all big improvements in user experience when it comes to watching videos online
Well, I'd say they're relatively minor improvements to watching porn online - where people want to skip to and from different content - which is a completely different experience to watching non-porn.
And before we get carried away at how innovative PornHub is, let's remember the entire site is nothing but a porn version of Youtube, down to the styling of their logo.
Thanks for your interesting post though, about things I hadn't considered before. I'm willing to accept those minor features in UX may have originated at porn sites, but I don't think that is what people (including the top comment) mean when they repeat the old myth that porn innovates or pushes technology.
I think they're important improvements to watching video in general, regardless of whether it's porn or non-porn. I think you're incorrect in saying these features are only beneficial to the porn industry, since people browse YouTube in a similar way, and would also benefit from them.
Porn innovates simply because it's a big market, with high competition. According to Alexa, there are 4 video streaming sites in the top 100 sites worldwide. They are YouTube, Pornhub, Xvideos, and Xhamster.
VR is new technology on the way. Which sites do you think are going to be pushing VR streaming online? It's going to be YouTube and those porn sites. I expect the porn sites to be first to adopt since VR streaming is an unproven market, and they'd be more willing to take the risk due to competition. Then, I'd expect YouTube to follow years after.
I'm not trying to say that porn is some golden goose industry that drives the world forward. I'm simply saying they're a big part of video streaming online, and for that reason I expect them to be on the forefront of that niche.
> since people browse YouTube in a similar way, and would also benefit from them.
I'd be very surprised if people browse Youtube in the way they'd browse Pornhub. I can't say I spend much (any) time on the latter, but if I did I would search whatever thing I'm in the mood for, click on a thumbnail I like the look of, skip around the video till there's something I like, then spend the required amount of time watching before closing Pornhub completely.
On Youtube I could spend hours just clicking and watching (and listening to) videos about many different things.
> Porn innovates simply because it's a big market, with high competition.
Sorry, but it doesn't innovate. Just saying it innovates (in any real, significant sense) doesn't make it true.
There is also no "high competition". The company that owns PornHub is in fact well-known for owning virtually all major (non-webcam) porn websites, free and pay.
Aside from them and a couple of other major sites, most porn sites are tiny and generate relative chickenfeed in revenue.
You only have to go to the site GFY to see the laughable state of most of the porn 'industry'.
> According to Alexa, there are 4 video streaming sites in the top 100 sites worldwide. They are YouTube, Pornhub, Xvideos, and Xhamster.
There's also VK, Youku, OK RU, Twitch, Netflix. Maybe others. This is ignoring Facebook, with its billion+ members uploading and viewing videos constantly.
> VR is new technology on the way. Which sites do you think are going to be pushing VR streaming online?
Google and Facebook.
> I'm not trying to say that porn is some golden goose industry that drives the world forward. I'm simply saying they're a big part of video streaming online, and for that reason I expect them to be on the forefront of that niche.
Porn was a similarly "big" part of video offline, and images online, and was not responsible for any technological innovations at all in either of those realms - simply passively using whatever tech or gimmick others had come up with - so I don't expect online video streaming will be any different.
When you rollover the timeline of a video you're watching, you get a little popup showing a screenshot at that time, allowing you to know what's there prior to clicking and changing the video to that point. YouTube and other video sites finally adopted the same, but from what I recall, it was a feature of porn sites for years first.
Most video sites have a list of related videos, which include thumbnails. When you rollover those thumbnails on porn sites, they typically animate the thumbnail so it shows various screenshots from the video at different time periods, so you have an idea of the video content, before actually opening it. YouTube is still missing this feature, some other video sites have it, but like the above, I remember it first released on porn sites for years. Since this article is regarding PornHub, they actually further innovated on this feature. Instead of a series of static screenshots, PornHub now shows short video clips at different times throughout the related video when you hover it. Once again, not a feature I've seen anywhere else online, but when you try it, you quickly realize it'll be standard for video sites in a few years.
xVideos has an improved timeline showing which parts of a video are buffered. If you're watching a video, and it buffers the first minute, then 0-1 minute will be highlighted in red on the timeline. If you then skip later in the video to the 3 minute mark and watch for another few seconds, it might buffer the 3-4 minute time period of the video. The timeline would then show 0-1 minute in red, and 3-4 minutes in red. You could then click anywhere in red on the timeline and the video would instantly start playing, since as the timeline shows, that part is buffered and ready to go. I've never seen the same feature anywhere else, YouTube and Vimeo would display the timeline as having 0-4 minutes buffered, which is incorrect, since they don't accurately display the gaps missing.
I don't know if those qualify as innovations to you, but they're all big improvements in user experience when it comes to watching videos online, and I believe they all originated on porn sites instead of YouTube, Vimeo, or elsewhere.