What you need to know
- Google search results will now be able to link directly to key moments within a video.
- Content creators will be responsible for adding the key moments into the timeline of the video themselves.
- Key moments should start appearing soon as creators and publishers, such as CBS Sports and NDTV, begin utilizing the feature.
Have you ever searched for a video only to end up wasting time skimming through it just to find the part you wanted to see? I know I have, and Google is looking to do something about this. Starting on September 17, Google Search introduced the ability to link to key moments in videos.
This should help with lengthy how-to videos, speeches, or documentaries by providing an easy way to jump right to the part you want to see from the search results. For example, searching for a video on podcasting would give you results allowing you to jump to different sections of a how-to video.
Maybe you already know everything about setting up the hardware, and with key moments, you could jump right into the editing portion of the video without skimming.
There is one catch, however. Content creators have to add these key moments themselves. Key moments will be available for English videos on YouTube "where creators have provided timestamp information in the video description." Google is also introducing ways for other content creators to make use of the feature, but videos must be available without requiring a user login and support deep linking.
Key moments should be showing up soon for users as more creators start utilizing the feature, including publishers such as CBS Sports and NDTV.
Besides enhancing search for videos, Google also implemented a new way to search audio back in August by making podcasts searchable by content. To make things even better, not only can you search for podcasts using Google, but it also made it possible to play the podcast directly from the search results.
