How Snowplow Web Video Tracking is implemented
Blog post from Snowplow
The Snowplow JavaScript Tracker has been expanded to include video tracking capabilities for HTML5 and YouTube videos, enhancing its already extensive application range for website, web app, and Node.js analytics. Utilizing plugins for Snowplow JavaScript Tracker v3, the video tracking feature captures user interactions with media players and provides detailed event and contextual information through self-describing JSON schemas. The HTML5 media tracking leverages the extensibility of HTMLMediaElement to capture a variety of events, such as play, pause, and volume changes, while YouTube tracking relies on Google's IFrame API to manage events like playback changes and errors. Both tracking methods allow customization of event capture through options like event groups and boundary settings, enabling users to tailor the tracking to their specific needs. The system is designed to minimize performance issues and ensure accurate event logging, offering a comprehensive solution for tracking user engagement with video content on websites.