Google on Tuesday announced an update for videos in its search results. Now, you won’t just see relevant videos in Google Search results, but also will be able to see the most relevant parts of long videos, said Google Search product manager Prashant Baheti in his blog. This will be on the basis of timestamps given by the video content creators and publishers.
The update could be useful in discarding irrelevant videos with misleading thumbnails. However, it remains to be seen how the new update by Google will change things for publishers or if the markup in videos will influence a video’s ranking on Google search results algorithm.
This announcement comes a day after Facebook announced a slew of updates for its live video broadcasting, Facebook’s Watch Party, Instagram/IGTV content and Creator Studio, enabling enhanced tools, analytics and more features, among others. As videos take precedence over other forms of content on the internet, the move by Facebook is focussed on encouraging video creators and publishers on its platform and a bid to take on Youtube.
And now with the new feature by Google on videos in search results is another way to make videos more relevant for its users.
Baheti wrote in his blog that unlike text, videos cannot be skimmed and it is easier to “overlook video content altogether.” Which is why, Google rolled out the update to make information more “accessible” and organise video content in Search in a better way.
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As per Google, when you search for a video, you will see direct links to several different parts of a video and when you click on then, it will move you right to the part of the video which has been highlighted..
However, instead of using automated systems for video highlights, Google has put the onus of marking the segments of their videos on content creators. Google has also added that it is working with video publishers such as CBS Sports and NDTV and they will start bookmarking segments in their videos soon.
Interestingly, the timestamp can be done regardless of the platform the video is on and is not restricted for YouTube creators.
