Facebook is many things to many people, but a video hosting website is not. The videos seem quite disorganized on the social network. You can upload your own videos, watch videos you're featured on or tagged in, watch videos for videos, promotional videos on Pages, profile videos, and videos just because. How do I find specific videos on Facebook?
Where you can find a particular video depends on what type of video it is and who uploaded it. If an individual charged it, it could be anywhere. If a company has uploaded it to a support page or site, it will be more logically ordered. Anyway, organization has never been a strong point at Facebook and this is a good example.
Find videos on Facebook
There are several ways to find videos on Facebook depending on what you are looking for. The easiest way is to use search, either a search engine or through Facebook itself. You can also browse timelines if you have time or just use the video filter.
Search videos on Facebook
If you are looking for random videos or something that someone randomly uploaded, search is the easiest way to find them. Facebook search is the logical starting point.
- Type your search term in the box at the top of the page.
- Select the Videos tab from the results.
- Scroll through the list until you find what you are looking for.
This works best if you're just looking for something to watch rather than a specific video. If you are looking for something specific, you can try adding as much information as possible in the search box and see what happens.
Find videos using a search engine
You can also use a search engine to find Facebook videos. Since Facebook video content is indexed by search engines, you can use your favorite to locate it. You can use two specific operators, 'VIDEO TOPIC:Facebook' to search only recent videos on the site or 'VIDEO TOPIC Facebook' to broaden the search a bit. Just change SUBJECT to what you are looking for.
Both search methods will get you what you want and the returns will be playable directly from the search engine.
Find live videos on Facebook
Since the changes to Live, it's harder to see what's been uploaded in your region. It was always a source of entertainment, to see what the neighbors had uploaded. You can still see general uploads if you use the "#live" search operator in Facebook search.
Find videos from specific people on Facebook
If you know the uploader or are looking for a video from a company or brand, your life is a little easier. All you have to do is navigate to the respective page and select the video tab or the video from the left menu. This will show you a list or grid of their videos so you can watch them as needed.
Find a previously watched video
What if you've already watched a really cool video and want to watch it again but can't remember where you found it? There, Facebook has your back and makes it easy to see what you've been up to.
- Select the small menu arrow at the top of the Facebook page.
- Select Activity Log from the options.
You'll see a timeline page of everything you've done since starting Facebook. Scary huh?
There should be every page you've visited, every photo you've viewed, and every video you've watched. If you watched something, it should be there. Depending on how much you use Facebook, this activity log can be huge, so there's a search box at the top. Add "video" to that and search to narrow down the diary results to just videos.
Find your own videos uploaded to Facebook
If you're trying to find a video you uploaded rather than someone else's, you can. Just go to your own page, select Photos and scroll down to Videos. The ones listed in the grid will be the ones you uploaded yourself.
You can also select your Facebook profile and select More. Under there should be a video input. Select it to view your own videos.
Find any video you are related with in any way
Finally, there's a broader Facebook video search that works pretty well. Just type video in the Facebook search box and you get a bunch of options. These will be "videos of me", "videos I watched recently", "videos shared by me", and so on. There should be several of them so you can choose the most relevant one.
You can also refine this by adding another word. For example, use "video tag" to access "videos tagged by me" or "videos I'm involved in". You had the idea. Change the second tag operator to whatever you like and have Facebook try to find it.
