Go to Google’s home page and at the top left you are given a number of options for refining your search: “Web, Images, Maps,” etc. At the end is a link for “more.” Click on that and at the bottom of the list, right after “Video,” you will find a new option: “YouTube.” 
Enter a search term and you are taken straight to YouTube’s homepage. Not the search results page on YouTube for that term. Just the homepage, where you have to enter your search results again. [Update: This should be easy enough to fix]. This is odd on many levels, not least of which is that every other search option returns actual search results on Google proper.
Obviously, Google owns YouTube and can promote it any way it wants to. But how does this new search option help me as a consumer looking for videos? Typing the same search twice is no fun. And having to choose between “Video” and “YouTube” is confusing. Not to mention, it is redundant. After all, I can already search on “Video” and get results from YouTube combined with a few other sources. Even there YouTube videos dominate. For instance, try searching Google Video for something generic like videos about “laughter” and eight of the top ten results come from YouTube anyway (Metacafe is thrown in at No. 4).
YouTube is synonymous with online video for many people. But why would I want to get less results when I am searching for videos on Google? If I want to search only YouTube videos, I can do that myself by just going to YouTube. You’ve got wonder if this is the first step in replacing Google Video search with YouTube altogether.
Video once held pride of place among the search options on Google. It was right on the homepage, third after Web and Images. Then it was nearly Froogled—bannished to the bottom of the “more” list. Now YouTube creeps onto that list. Google is supposed to search the Web, not push Google’s products. As with last night’s Knol announcement, Google seems increasingly to be moving into the content game. Maybe we’ll see a return of Google Tips as well, or blog search that favors posts written on Google-owned Blogger.
Ah, remember the old days when everything was simpler?
I was quite fond of the “video” link’s previously convenient position. Seems like a poor move.
Google should be expanding to search more video sites, not narrowing its results to YouTube alone.
its not new its been there for at least a week
anyways, that doesnt make sense and only confuses visitors like you said.
Yahoo > google
not only is yahoo search improving, but
my yahoo> igoogle
flickr > picasa
y! answers > nothing from google
y! mail> gmail
y! messenger > g talk
y! finance/message boards / google finance
yahoo shopping > google products
Google is something we should pay attention to but it would be nice if you didn’t cover it quite so much. Today on your homepage Google is covered four times. What else is going on out there?
I’m not sure how that last screenshot is supposed to remind us of how things were simpler, considering instead of your current gripe of not carrying over a search query to Youtube, the more link used to take you away from the search page and to an entirely different page that explained all of the services (or at least linked to them).
In comparison to that, the new version is simpler, even with the video redundancy.
As far as I can see it’s just a bug, it is passing your search phrase over to Youtube, just in the wrong url parameter format.
e.g. http://www.yout...p;search=Search returns the correct results
but http://www.yout...sa=N&tab=w1 is what’s actually being passed.
But nothing wrong here. Finance is there, Book is there. The more is a list of products belonging to google… so it is up to the user to see if they wanna click on Youtube or Not. Same as with Blogger!
I would recommend Google to mention Youtube in the drop down list, but add a Video link: Web | Images | News |Video | etc, and use the Google Video as a general video search. That would be a better.
Google Video Search is pretty much YouTube search anyway, with a few other video sharing sites sprinkled in.
If you really want comprehensive, check out our social discovery site:
http://www.mefeedia.com
We cover over 15,000 video websites, and only about 10% of that content is YouTube content (all of the “good stuff” from YT).
-Frank
CEO, Mefeedia.com
I haven’t seen much push from a marketing standpoint with YouTube from Google since it’s purchase; other than traditional press.
They might have just put it there (although redundant) to separate the two as far as search results go. What would be more effective is if they just put a “Sort by Site” feature on the vide.google.com side. This would leave the choice up to the user.
With many video sites popping up, they might be losing traction. For instance, the recent release of the feature that pays people to post videos. Yes, this is awesome – giving something back to the “community” in hopes to thrive on this viral video market in return for traffic that is attractive to advertisers. That isn’t something new though, it’s being very effective over at MetaCafe. They do have the advantage of being owned by Google; thus giving the public a natural sense of “better service”, I could be wrong.
I’m getting off topic.
-ronlg
When I take a look at the posts on Techcrunch this morning it appears TechCrunch has become google’s public relations firm.
I do respect the fact they are GOOGLE, but there is sooo much more going on in tech today that it would be nice to have some balance.
Also if memory serves me correctly this isn’t the first time TechCrunch is overly-googed! Does google have a “news-release” friday akin to MS’s update Tuesday?
Oh yeah, balance please……
OK OK OK.
Time out.
First of all none of those additional options (not one of them) will automatically search in those sites if you just type a search term on the home page and click on those links. Those links are simply there to take you to those Google properties where you can then search if you want.
“But how does this new search option help me as a consumer looking for videos?”
IT’S NOT A SEARCH OPTION!
“Typing the same search twice is no fun.”
THEY DON’T EXPECT YOU TO TYPE YOUR QUERY TWICE!
The only half-valid point you raise in your post is that users might get confused between video and you-tube. But this is the typical tactic most companies use when they change names (think Anderson Consulting to Accenture) or are slowly phasing out one brand for another (think Cingular to “the new AT&T) – for awhile they will use both in the same ad, then give more prominence to the new name (and add a “previously known as …” addendum) and then stop using the old name altogether. YouTube will probably rise up the list in a similar fashion as “Video” fades out.
“Google is supposed to search the Web, not push Google’s products.”
Oh really? So now you decide what Google should and should not be doing by using your narrow-minded definition for their vision? Wow – as chairman of the board of directors of Google, you are sure to impress the shareholders with your views.
Fact: Google is supposed to do well as a company, as ethically as possible while still make money for its shareholders. *That* is what it is supposed to be doing.
Period.
Wow, yeah that is really news worthy. Quite the discovery, with excellent insight that I am sure many will take to heart. I can’t believe I read the whole thing.
Seems odd to me why the search term isn’t included when you select that link. How hard could that be to fix for an experienced Google coder?!
@13, it is probably just a glitch. But speaks to the fact that this is all about pushing YouTube, not improving search.
@11, what are you talking about? When I put in a search term and click on “Blog” or “Video” or any other option, it takes me to the search results page for that term on the corresponding Google search property. When I click on YouTube, it takes me to the YouTube homepage, where I do have to type the search term again to find videos related to that term. Is that not what you see?
@Frank Sinton
I tried your startup website… When I type “Apple”. Your search result couldn’t pick up “Apple” computer releated to early steve jobs or young steve jobs meet bill gates. In addition, it need more improvement. And the image running process search is very slow. And you need to fix the logo. Try not create your own logo. You should hire professional designer who could create better logo. YOur website looks much better than bright cove. It’s easy and simple… But too slow… You got job to do…
Yes, you website is popular along with Rolling stone, Forbes, and businessweek. You got fix your job…
Erick, I think there’s a slight modification required here -
@11 is bang on.
On the google homepage, when we click any item from the drop down menu of “more”, it simply takes the user there, doesn’t *search* automatically!
The only way I see this happening is once the user has actually pressed “Google Search” button, and then from the results page goes to *more* and selects a new channel like blogs, videos, … does the searched item gets searched on the new channel. I think this is what you meant..
P.S. Frank Sinton. Don’t forget put “We pay you money” for video work. Why you need this?
You can’t beat youtube ratings if they launch pay users. You can’t beat HULU. You can’t beat the upcoming pay-video startup they make. Creative destruction going mad.
You got mad geniuses out here.
The worst part about it is that when you click the youtube link, it doesn’t send your query to youtube. What’s the point?
@Prashanth Narayanan, Robert the Guitar Guy, Coffee Man, symbii.com
Your website. You need better design. Go to “free css” on google search. Pick the simple one. Don’t use graphical fancy ui. You need horsepowe & speed.
Ewan
You need .com, and “free css”
Erick just took comment #26 from post below and
http://www.tech...o-far/#comments
can created a “news” story out of it.
And no credit to reader??
WTF
Skin cancer prevention means staying out of the sun. The sun is the leading cause of skin cancer. Too many sunburns, too much tanning, or just spending a lot of time in the sun is bad for your skin if you are not protected. Fair skinned and light haired people are more at risk. In this group of people, children, people who play outdoor sports a lot, outdoor workers, etc. are included.
Una sugerencia….que les parece si agregan un botón que nos lleve directamente a blogs y artículos relacionados al cancer!!!!
A suggestion…. that seems to them if they add a button that take directly to the blogs and articles related with the cancer!
#20 – I made that comment – i also emailed the editors from techcrunch anonymously (before commenting – i was not sure they got the email). I guess they based this post on the email and not on the comment. I was not interested in any credits, so techcrunch were great here
Slow news day ay?
MS VideoSearch is the thing!
“Google is supposed to search the Web, not push Google’s products. ”
I think that’s for Larry, Sergey and Eric to say…
It is rather odd that one has to re-type the search keywords after being redirected to YouTube homepage. Also if there are two options for videos in there, I think they should specifically mention ‘Google Video’ there instead of just ‘Video’ and other one would be ‘YouTube’.
Slow news day, huh?
I’m with #11!
That dropdown is just a list of Google’s products, that when clicked on open a new window to the home page of the product you have chosen.. It shows up in Reader, Goggle Docs, Calendar……. Just an easy way to get to the different Google Products.
If you do a search from the Google home page and there is video that fits your search it is all shown in the search results without having to “refine” your search, even You Tube videos.
Must have been a slow day?
Very typically to think abot it so flat.