14 DAY TRIAL // Google has recently made some changes to the video search results that sometimes show up among the regular results. When searching for a band or a song, the video results will offer information that is more suited for music videos rather than generic ones. Each entry will also list several sources for the same video, offering users a choice in where to watch it.
"People often come to Google to find music videos, and this week we improved our results so now when you’re searching for your favorite band or album, you’ll find popular clips organized in a new way," Ben Gomes, Distinguished Engineer at Google, wrote in the weekly round-up of new search features.
"For example, search for [michael jackson] and you’ll find some of the King of Pop’s most famous videos, including clear text indicating the length of the video, the album and the year it was published," he explained.
Regularly, video results show information such as source or date of creation. For music videos, this info is less relevant, so the date of the single is displayed rather than the date the video was uploaded along with the album where it's take from.
A much more interesting change though is the fact that more sources for the same video are now listed, rather than just showing the same video over and over again from all of the places where it may be available.
"The feature scans the entire web for video content and algorithmically ranks the best sources for each song. Rather than return repetitive links, we group results for the same song together, making it easier to scan and choose the song you’re looking for," Gomes explained.
It's great to give people choice as well as clean up the results and the move couldn't have come at a better time, Google is getting a lot of heat for 'pushing' its own products in the search results page, especially in Europe.
However, even though there are now several sources, the main one is often times still YouTube, owned by Google. This seems obvious, since YouTube is the biggest online video source out there, but this still leaves Google open to criticism.