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December 30, 2008

Google Simplifies the Format for Video Results

After removing the useful option to play videos inline*, Google no longer displays the duration and the rating for universal video results. Here's the same YouTube video in 2007, when Google launched universal search, and today. The only difference between video results and regular web pages is that videos have thumbnails and the options to find similar pages and to see the cached version aren't included.


I'm not sure if the rating of a video is very useful, but the duration, the date when it was uploaded and the number of views might be helpful. Google shows similar information for scientific papers, forums and this approach could be extended to other categories of web pages.

* The option to play videos results without opening a new page is available at Yahoo Search.

6 comments:

  1. I was really annoyed when Google removed the ability to play videos inline, that feature rocks. I have a feeling it had something to do with Youtubes ad revenue. I just searched userscripts to see if anyone had written a greasemonkey script to achieve inline videos but had no luck.

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  2. I'm not sure if it has something to do with ad revenue, but the feature is still available at Google Video (the TV view is an even better way to watch videos).

    I know there was a Greasemonkey script that added this feature, but I didn't post about it because the interface was annoying. The closest thing I was able to find is this script which embeds the player next to the link.

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  3. only one question: WHY! I mean who care about REMOVE the duration, why google fear it!

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  4. Good post. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Whyyyyyy
    Duration is important

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  6. I think Google is aiming at the actual content vs. the length of it (ie. what it's about).

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