New Feature for the Google Search Index: YouTube Videos!

An influx of online videos is expected to infiltrate the Internet following Google's recent announcement that the YouTube video library will now be a major part of their search index.

Whatever the topic, Google search results will attempt to yield the most appropriate match from their YouTube database. If the user wishes to watch the video, they just simply click the "video" tab feature that will accompany the web result. The videos will not appear as web results themselves. (Source: mediainfocenter.org)

Representatives from Google Inc. commented on the recent changes to their search engine, stating that favoring YouTube videos will introduce their service to a larger audience, while helping to differentiate YouTube from the standard Google Video service.

As it stands, the major difference between the sister services is that Google Video wants to be known as the definitive search engine for all online videos, while YouTube is quite content being the place to share uploaded videos and reaching out to a smaller target audience. (Source: usatoday.com)

The data extracted from the online viewing audience echoes their desire.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Google Video attracted 108 million visitors in the month of December compared to only 38 million viewers watching YouTube. (Source: mediainfocenter.org)

Google is pleased to share their viewing audience, insisting that having both video services will dramatically increase the number of videos available on the Internet.

Rival companies Yahoo and AOL also have video search engines, but neither link to the increasingly popular YouTube video library. (Source: usatoday.com)

However, YouTube still remains out of favor with various movie, television and music companies among a host of other copyright holders. In the past, many network executives have asked that their copyrighted material be taken down from the site, while asking for the names of the various users who upload their material.

Google representatives have honored requests thus far, but ask the major networks to also consider the benefits that can arise from peer-to-peer video sharing. Instead of rushing to remove the videos altogether, Google believes that the copyright owners could profit from the videos that appear on their service by posting ads next to these videos and attracting an ever-increasing audience.