Google is the largest search engine of them all. And realize it or not, YouTube that is also Google's, is the second largest search engine of them all.
In 2021, there are about 2 billion YouTube users worldwide. With hours worth of videos uploaded every single minute, people visit YouTube as their source of entertainment, in order to follow brands, companies or celebrities, to learn or to study, to socialize, as a news source, and more.
Knowing that people visit YouTube to find lots of information, the company wants to improve that experience by enhancing its search feature, to make it more accurate. And to do that, YouTube has announced two features that should make the platform a lot more convenient.
First of all, YouTube enhances its search feature to be able to index video chapters.
When it was introduced video chapters as the big step in the right direction, as it allows creators to divide their content into multiple parts.
This makes it easier for the viewer to navigate through the information, and get to the information they want by picking up what chapter of the video to view.
And here, YouTube enhances its search feature to allow users to directly go to the intended timestamp, by jumping tight into the section without having to manually go there.
In a blog post, YouTube said that:
"Now, you’ll be able to make even more informed decisions about what you’re going to watch through video chapters directly in the search page."
"When available, these time-stamped images detail the different topics covered in videos and let you better evaluate the video you’re about to watch. You can also jump directly to the section most relevant to your specific interest."
"Let's say you're looking for a good sourdough recipe and want to work on your kneading technique. With these new search results, you can see all the steps in the video, from feeding the starter to pulling the bread out of the oven - and skip right to the chapter on kneading."
With that in mind, YouTube is also bringing video snippets to mobile.
Second, YouTube wants to bring everything together, all in one place, regardless of the language being used.
YouTube has a lot of videos. However, they don’t always cover every topic across every language.
In order to make information that is available in other language, available to viewers who speak other language, YouTube starts to show search results from other languages "with automatically translated captions, titles and descriptions when relevant content in the local language isn’t available."
What this means, for example, "someone in Thailand can learn about quantum physics from a professor at MIT or viewers in Brazil can explore the Grand Canyon from home, with captions in their local language."
Initially, the feature aims to supplement search results with English videos, with YouTube planning to expand the feature to more languages.
"Our hope is that all global content will become more accessible through translated captions and help creators reach a more global audience. "
And to wrap everything, YouTube also wants its search feature to surface more information.
To do this, YouTube has started experimenting with a new feature to complement search results with website links and other formats, as well as from Google Search.
At this time, the feature is only available for users in India and Indonesia.