Google tests “in this video” search feature

How cool is this new Google search feature that breaks down the sections of the video you are watching.

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Google often shows video results in its search results, in fact, Google has a feature to show suggested clips, a method to jump you to the portion of the video that answers your specific query. Now, it appears, Google is testing showing “in this video” – a timeline that shows you what sections of the video talks about sub-topics.

What is it? The “in this video” section shows up under a video snippet in the Google search results. It will show you sub-sections of the video in a timeline format, letting you click to jump ahead to that specific portion of the video.

What it looks like. Here is a screen shot of what this looks like:

Google Video Result In This Video Timeline 1568633943

See more. Amit Singh posted this on Twitter and shared a video cast of this in action. Here is that tweet:

Why it matters. Clearly, between the suggested clip and this feature, Google knows what content is within the video. Google is able to jump over irrelevant portions of your video and send people directly to the section the searcher wants to see and hear. Structuring your video content in a clear and understandable way so that humans and robots can easily breakdown the format of the video may become more important in your video SEO strategy.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a technologist and 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.

In 2019, Barry was awarded the Outstanding Community Services Award from Search Engine Land, in 2018 he was awarded the US Search Awards the "US Search Personality Of The Year," you can learn more over here and in 2023 he was listed as a top 50 most influential PPCer by Marketing O'Clock.

Barry can be followed on X here and you can learn more about Barry Schwartz over here or on his personal site.

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