Travel Videos Coming to Universal Search Results?
Video is on its own track, running parallel to text search, not on the same track with text search the way local and image search is. What Google is to text search, YouTube is to video. This is an important concept to grasp.
YouTube is it's own thing. Go to Alexa.com and compare YouTube to Google.com. While Google has more reach than YouTube, YouTube has more pageviews than Google, and the daily traffic trend of YouTube is neck and neck. The Alexa Top Sites ranks YouTube the 3rd most trafficked website on the Internet, just behind Google and Yahoo. YouTube outpaces Facebook, MySpace, and even Wikipedia.
YouTube is it's own thing and should be considered on it's own terms, not as a subset of Text Search. YouTube is a true Internet gateway, just as Yahoo and Google are. YouTube is the premier gateway to video on the Internet. If it's not on YouTube, then in essence it does not exist on the Internet for a great majority of web surfers.
Video makes sense
It's easier to watch information than it is to read it. Sometimes information is better when it is viewed than read. Should video show up in a text search SERP? Yes, because in the context of certain searches (particularly entertainment searches) it makes sense. Video results in the SERPs currently seems to be limited to certain areas. For instance, it's not currently appearing in local type searches. However it might make sense in tourism related searches if there's a great video of a specific tourist area, like Las Ramblas or Golden Gate Bridge, or the Eiffel Tower, etc. If I were Google, I would take the kind of travel videos TurnHere does and throw those into tourist type searches. Things to do in Napa Valley, good restaurants in Manhattan, etc. then show links to video travelogues of wine country and video restaurant reviews. I think once the video content catches up to the queries, it's possible to see video links show up in a wider area of results via the Universal Search. Maybe not this year, but in the future. It's certainly useful.
Do a Google search for Travel Videos and you'll see YouTube advertising there. It's a start.
YouTube is it's own thing. Go to Alexa.com and compare YouTube to Google.com. While Google has more reach than YouTube, YouTube has more pageviews than Google, and the daily traffic trend of YouTube is neck and neck. The Alexa Top Sites ranks YouTube the 3rd most trafficked website on the Internet, just behind Google and Yahoo. YouTube outpaces Facebook, MySpace, and even Wikipedia.
YouTube is it's own thing and should be considered on it's own terms, not as a subset of Text Search. YouTube is a true Internet gateway, just as Yahoo and Google are. YouTube is the premier gateway to video on the Internet. If it's not on YouTube, then in essence it does not exist on the Internet for a great majority of web surfers.
Video makes sense
It's easier to watch information than it is to read it. Sometimes information is better when it is viewed than read. Should video show up in a text search SERP? Yes, because in the context of certain searches (particularly entertainment searches) it makes sense. Video results in the SERPs currently seems to be limited to certain areas. For instance, it's not currently appearing in local type searches. However it might make sense in tourism related searches if there's a great video of a specific tourist area, like Las Ramblas or Golden Gate Bridge, or the Eiffel Tower, etc. If I were Google, I would take the kind of travel videos TurnHere does and throw those into tourist type searches. Things to do in Napa Valley, good restaurants in Manhattan, etc. then show links to video travelogues of wine country and video restaurant reviews. I think once the video content catches up to the queries, it's possible to see video links show up in a wider area of results via the Universal Search. Maybe not this year, but in the future. It's certainly useful.
Do a Google search for Travel Videos and you'll see YouTube advertising there. It's a start.
Search Engine Commentary by martinibuster || Travel Videos Coming to Universal Search Results?
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