Google Search Can Now Link To Specific Part of a Video

Google Search has seen lots of changes from the day of its inception. Google has made several algorithm changes, quality check, and more to give users accurate search results. In many cases, Google has made search results personalized by showing results that might suit a particular user. Also, Google has added other features such as rich snippet, review support, quick information, and more in the search result. Rich snippet, for example, scans the whole blog posts and shows the part that users need the most. Google applied similar tech for Images, audio, and visuals to make search result more relevant. But one area, Google hadn’t touched was video. It is hard to scan a video and recommend the only part where the specific users are looking. This is all going to change from today as Google introduced a new feature.

Now Google will highlight key moments of a video in the search results based on your search term. This is helpful especially when you are looking for a how-to guide which generally involves multiple steps and/or a long introduction; the search will now link you directly to the key moments. To make this happen, Google is relying on content creators to add timestamps to its videos, which Google can use to highlight or link to key moments within a video. Google is a blog post said, “Starting today you can find key moments within videos and get to the information you’re looking for faster, with help from content creators. When you search for things like how-to videos that have multiple steps, or long videos like speeches or a documentary, Search will provide links to key moments within the video, based on timestamps provided by content creators. 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. For people who use screen readers, this change also makes video content more accessible.“

Currently, Google is only supporting YouTube videos, especially those YouTube videos which have timestamps in the description. But Google is expecting to expand this feature to other video providers as well. Google has published a developer’s docs to let developers implement this VideoObject to their videos. After doing necessary changes to the video, publishers can submit their request to Google to include their video content under this new search functionality.

Google said soon users would be able to see these key moments from publishers such as CBS Sports and NDTV as they have already added the markup to their videos. What do you think of this new feature? Do you think it will improve the users’ experience? Let us discuss in the comment section below.