Looks like Facebook really wants Facebook Live to work well with its audiences thanks to the different tweaks the feature has been undergoing.
In its latest set of attempts to make Facebook Live more interesting, Facebook has introduced ‘Live Video’ – an option under the apps tab on the Facebook desktop version.
When you click on ‘Live Video’, it immediately takes you to a world map with different dots to show the instances of Facebook Live being used all over the world. It looks something like this:
The tab on the left side shows the videos with the most-views at the current time and of course, many other dots keep appearing as you look at the map.
I believe, segregating videos like this on a world map is a good move because it gives me a glimpse of what exactly the world is up to, without having to put too much effort. If my interest lies in knowing what’s happening in Australia at a particular time, I can check it out through Facebook Live. This concept is pretty similar to Flight Radar, wherein you can see the number of flights that are flying all across the world and to different destinations.
You can zoom into a particular area on the map and when you hover on a blue dot, you get a thumbnail-sized preview of the video that is live. And if a dot is bigger and sends out a beam, it means that that stream has a large number of viewers. You also get to see the number of viewers at that particular time. This way, we also get to see which parts of the world are more actively using Facebook Live and video-streaming their activities. As I am writing this, I see Thailand with the highest concentration of Live streams.
Facebook is basically playing into the curiosity of the human mind and as the service gains popularity, all we will be able to see pretty soon will be a whole bunch of blue dots with no idea about where to click next. What will your move be then, Facebook?
*This feature is currently only available for Facebook Desktop.
