Google used to have a feature that allowed you to watch videos from YouTube and Google Video inside the search results.
Launched in May 2007, the video
plus box was a quick way to play videos without having to load the entire page of a video hosting site. For some reason, Google only limited the plus box to its own video sites (YouTube and Google Video), while showing thumbnails and metadata for other sites.
Yahoo Search
added a similar feature in October for YouTube, Metacafe and Yahoo Video, but now the plus box is nowhere to be found in Google's results:
Instead of making the feature available for other video sites, Google decided to remove it altogether. Hopefully there's a better explanation than increasing the number of page views for YouTube and Google Video, as Google usually puts the user first.
I loved that feature.
ReplyDeleteThey couldn't make it available for other video sites, because it would cause too many disputes with the makers of the videos.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that they figured it was confusing to the users to have two different actions depending on video source.
@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteThat's inaccurate. Google Video shows inline previews for a lot of video sites.
R.I.P Video Plus Boxes in Google's Results, you will be missed!
ReplyDeleteI really liked that feature! Maybe they will bring it back...
@Ionut
ReplyDeleteTrue, but it still depends upon the licensing terms of the site.
They still appear in Google News.
ReplyDeleteI hate this feature
ReplyDeleteI prefer the old layout, old version
Yeah it sucks that they got rid of this feature, someone should write a greasemonkey script to bring it back. It was so useful.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, somebody should write a GreaseMonkey script for this.
ReplyDeleteI hated this feature as i was never never never looking for videos. I do research for products most of the time and ahving all theis video crap in there was a problem. I am one of the many thousnads tha complained about this feature. Maybe that is why they took it out.
ReplyDelete