GOOGLE has launched a revamped Internet search engine that integrates video, books, maps and news into "universal" results to online queries. One can also play the videos directly from the google search page. The videos will be shown on Google’s results page if it’s contained in the company’s own database or the vast library of its YouTube subsidiary. A thumbnail will direct traffic to videos hosted on other sites like Metacafe.com.
Not only has Google made this significant change, but they’ve also changed up the navigation links on the search results page. New dynamically generated navigation lists have been added above the SERPs to suggestion additional information relevant to a user’s query. For example, a search for "coffee" will now generate links to Blog Search, Book Search, Groups, and Code, to let you know there’s additional information on your query in those areas.
“Our focus has always been making our users’ search experience as simple and straightforward as possible,” said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google. “The ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to go, today’s announcements are a big step in that direction.”
By creating another major channel to show YouTube videos, Google also could be courting more copyright trouble. Since its inception, YouTube has regularly shown pirated videos posted by its users, a problem that has spurred several copyright infringement lawsuits, including a $1 billion damage claim by Viacom Inc.
Via SearchEngineLand:
See the little + Watch Video part in the listing (image below)? That’s a video Plus Box, which have been spotted in the past. Now they are being formalized.
Clicking on that will open up the video and let you watch it within the search results, like this:
SearchEngineLand has an excellent review of the whole thing.
