Wednesday, May 04, 2016

The Real-time Video Map


A couple of years ago, when the short-form video sharing site Vine first appeared, there was a small trend to create maps of the latest videos posted using Vine. The maps proved quite popular at the time.

There was a certain appeal to the maps as they allowed you to see normal people around the world broadcasting in almost real-time. They also probably had a certain voyeuristic appeal. Unfortunately all the Vine maps seem to now be defunct. However you can still view real-time videos being posted around the world on Facebook Live.

The Facebook Live Map is a map of the latest Facebook Live videos. Facebook Live allows Facebook users to post live video broadcasts to their Facebook friends and to the whole world. The Facebook Live Map shows the locations of all the latest videos and live videos being posted using Live.

The map has two different types of map marker. The blue dots represent videos which are no longer live but which have been posted in the last few minutes. The flashing dots are the videos which are currently being broadcast live. If you select any of the dot markers on the map you can watch the broadcast live (or its recording if it has recently finished). If you hover over a marker you can also see where other people around the world are tuning in to watch the chosen video.

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