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YouTube Adding Geographic Search

Greg Sterling on July 11, 2008 at 7:16 am

Tired of searching for “Paris” (France) on YouTube and mostly seeing video of Paris Hilton? A new geographic search feature (reported first by NewTeeVee) should take care of that. Video uploading users have been able to geotag videos on YouTube but not easily search for video by location.

By contrast, Google Earth allows searching for geographically relevant YouTube videos by enabling the YouTube layer. YouTube videos also show up in Google Maps.

YouTube on Google Earth:

The new location search on YouTube is a bit buried. If you search for a place, you’ll see a map icon in the first position, where there would otherwise be a video thumbnail:

Clicking that opens a map, with videos related to that location:

You can further refine your search for something specific in that location: hotels in my example above or (below) videos showing people standing on line for the iPhone in New York:

Despite the fact that local search for YouTube videos has been available in Maps and Earth, it’s a valuable addition to YouTube itself.

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.