Google Adds Video Instant Previews To Some Results

Google has added a new type of instant previews to the Google search results. The new previews are designed specifically for video results. The video instant previews show you several frames from a video and may even play the video preview when you mouse over the thumbnail image. I should not, not all video results […]

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PreviwGoogle has added a new type of instant previews to the Google search results. The new previews are designed specifically for video results.

The video instant previews show you several frames from a video and may even play the video preview when you mouse over the thumbnail image. I should not, not all video results have instant previews, the video providers have to opt to show these previews.

How Instant Video Previews Work:

(1) Search Google or Google Video search and look for a video result.

(2) Mouse over or click on the magnifying glass preview icon.

(3) A drop down of 4 frames may be displayed on the right side of the icon. Here is a picture:

Screen Shot 2011 03 14 At 10.28.43 AM

(4) Place your mouse cursor over the video preview frames and the video selection might begin to play on your screen.

Google’s Daniel M. Russell finds this “REALLY handy when the video results are more diverse, and you can’t really tell them apart except by clicking though to the result.”

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About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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