14 DAY TRIAL // Google is experimenting with an interesting new feature for its Google Video search engine. Searches for a band or an artist will also list albums by that artist, enabling users to restrict the search to videos from one particular album. The feature isn't available to everyone yet, but it's yet another example of how Google is using structured data to enhance search.
The feature has been spotted in the wild, as Google Operating System noticed, but it's not working for everyone, either because it's an US-only feature or, most likely, since Google is still experimenting with it.
Now, video searches for music related terms, band names for example, will retrieve a list of albums from the band in question, on top of the video results.
Click on any of the album titles and the results will contain music or video results related to that album alone. This could prove useful if you're trying to find a specific track, but can't remember its name, or want to see if a song is from a particular album.
But more important than the feature itself is how it's built. Google is working on amassing all manner of structured data from the web, making it easier to make sense of it all.
One of the most interesting examples of this in practice, is the new Image Search feature which enables users to group the results by subject, as determined algorithmically from a number of data points, such as the context around the photo as well as the composition of the image itself.
The new video search feature, is nothing that complex, but it's another indicator of how much better search can be with more metadata available making it easier for the search engines to group related topics together.