Google Launches Ability to Find Key Moments in YouTube Videos via Search
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Google has introduced a new way to find exact moments in YouTube videos through its search engine, with initial partners including CBS Sports.
According to Google, search results now will provide links to key moments within the video — if, that is, YouTube content creators have provided the necessary timestamp information to Google. “You’ll be able to easily scan to see whether a video has what you’re looking for, and find the relevant section of the content,” Prashant Baheti, product manager for Google Search, wrote in a blog post Tuesday announcing the new feature.
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The links to specific points in YouTube videos will appear in search results in English. Google is working with video publishers including CBS Sports and India’s NDTV to mark up their videos and make them more searchable. According to the company, “To ensure coverage and a good user experience, the feature is currently limited to a small set of providers.” Google has launched a form for content creators to apply to be part of the program (available at this link).
Besides making it easier to find specific points in videos, the new feature also will make video content more access to people who use screen readers, Baheti noted.
The new video move comes after Google last month launched the ability to play back podcasts from search results and that it had begun indexing podcasts based on audio analysis of the topics in a given show.
Here’s what search results for marked-up videos look like (with keywords and phrases linking to specific spots in the video):
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