Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it no secret that he believes the future of the social network lies in video, and today Facebook is rolling out more algorithm tweaks to make News Feed smarter at picking what videos you see.

According to Facebook Engineering Manager Meihong Wang and Software Engineer Yue Zhuo, not everyone wants to like or comment on the content that shows up in their News Feed, but that does not mean the content is not relevant to them or that they do not enjoy it.

“We have learned that certain actions people take on a video, such as choosing to turn on sound or making the video full screen, are good signs they wanted to see that video, even if they didn’t want to like it,” Wang and Zhuo wrote in a blog post. “Today, we want to share an update to News Feed ranking that takes into account these actions to help people see more of the videos they care about and fewer of the videos they don’t.”

With the new update, any interaction a user has with a video in their News Feed is tracked and used to infer what types of videos they would enjoy seeing in the future. Now, something as simple as changing the volume or switching to HD is all it takes for Facebook to decide that you enjoyed a certain video.

Facebook’s battle with YouTube

Facebook’s most direct competitor in the web video space is Google-owned YouTube Inc., and while Facebook is a relative newcomer to video, it has one of the largest potential audiences in the world.

The social network is quickly approaching 1.5 billion monthly active users, or roughly one-fifth of the entire world population. This figure is even more impressive when you consider that less than 40 percent of the world actually has access to the internet.

YouTube, by comparison, has a measly 1 billion users, but it also has a decade’s worth of content with 300 hours of new video being uploaded every minute. While Facebook is making strides in video, it seems unlike to dethrone YouTube anytime soon, but as it continues improving its video platform, the social network will definitely make a strong contender.

Photo by FirmBee (Pixabay)