Pornhub Trolls YouTube For Copying Their Video Hover Idea

Adult website Pornhub trolled YouTube Saturday for copying its video preview feature two days after the video sharing site released the feature for its desktop users.

The new thumbnail previews feature allows the users to see a preview of a video when the cursor is hovered on the thumbnail. The three second preview is automatically selected from the first half of the video. The users uploading the video on YouTube cannot control the part that is shown in the preview.

Read: YouTube Will Soon Categorize Comments Based On Popular, Common Topics

However, similar feature has already been available on porn website Pornhub where if a user keeps the cursor on the thumbnail of the video, it shows a preview with the best shots of the video. This preview also lasts just for few seconds.

In a tweet, Pornhub asked YouTube how the site got the idea of the video hovering. YouTube has so far not responded to Pornhub's request for clarification.

The video sharing website's latest feature is currently available only on Google Chrome and Opera web browsers and not on smart phones. The preview will be only available for the videos that are more than 30 seconds in length, the company said. Live videos will also not support the preview feature.

YouTube decided not to allow curators to choose the preview in a bid to ensure the users are not misled with thumbnails that misrepresent the content. After announcing the hover feature, the company also took some questions from its users.

When a YouTube user asked why a longer preview was not used, YouTube said: "We wanted to share a short preview without spoiling too much of the video."

Another user asked about the latest feature's availability on Firefox, and YouTube replied saying: "We don't have a great estimate right now, but we are exploring ways to bring this feature to other browsers!"

Some users also reminded YouTube that the video preview feature has been available for a long time on other websites, and there is nothing innovative about it.

"Yes, we've been testing it for some time and it's currently rolling out to everyone today," YouTube said Thursday.

YouTube has made changes to its already existing features, and created additional ones to make it easier for users to enjoy its unlimited streaming of videos.

Read: YouTube Mobile App Will Soon Adapt To Any Video Format To Fill The Screen

In June, it was reported that the Google-owned company would introduce a new way to view comments based on the users' relevance to certain topics or keywords. The announcement of the new “Popular comment topics” section came a few months after YouTube launched other features for the comments section of its platform.