YouTube videos may soon be getting a little more interactive. There’s now a page on the YouTube website describing a feature called “Video Questions Editor Beta,” which was spotted by the Dutch tech site WebSonic.nl.
The page itself is pretty bare-bones, but it describes the feature as a way for “multiple questions to be displayed on top of your video during playback that a viewer can answer.” So video producers can add an interactive element to their content — imagine adding little quizzes to an educational video or introducing product questions to a video ad.
I actually managed to sign up my (pretty much nonexistent) YouTube account for the beta, and you can see the question editor above. It’s pretty straightforward: you just enter the question you want to ask, the point in the video when it should appear, and the answers that a viewer can choose from. You can also identify one of the answers as the correct one, and offer a hint if the viewers guess incorrectly. Afterwards, you can view a summary of the answers on your analytics page.
The beta page does caution that this really is just something YouTube is testing: “There is no plan for long-term support of the feature and may be removed at any time without prior notification.” I’ve emailed the company for comment and will update if I hear back.
[Thanks to WebSonic's Michel Wester for the heads up.]
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