Google Video - Its an eyeball thing

Oops..only 3 posts and I am already digressing. Well, couldn't resist writing what i just saw (thought) about one of Google's newest offerings - Google Video - and i thought maybe its worth a digression. Let me know, if you thought the same too.


What is Google Video?

It is the latest offering from Google that allows us to search on all the videos available on the world wide web. Based on my few experiments, it seemed to cover a range of video formats – mpeg3, mpeg 4, quick time, RealVideo, Windows Media and a few others..The indexing is primarily done on the meta data available about the video – primarily the anchor text, the source page, name of the file etc (if it is uploaded by a content provider then there is probably some richer indexing). I won’t be surprise though that very soon the folks at Google find a way to index the content too. There are already beta technologies in place, that aim to convert voice files into text and then index on the transcript. Google video allows you an option to either view the video streamlined or download the video file, and here lies the reason why I think it’s cool.

Google Video – The cool factor

Traditionally if you search on Google for any text related info, you get a Search Engine Result Page (SERP), you spot a few relevant links, you click on them and bingo you are out of Google on some other domain. Now, Google’s entire business model rests on advertisements and the entire idea of creating these cool features is to fight for that one rare commodity – Your attention. But with text based search, what Google is doing is, it is diverting people to the pages where they want to go and its technology allows it to do this so fast (1000s of results in a few seconds) that we don’t tend to spend as much time on Google as Google would want us to. Google Video kind of changes it – With Google video you don’t leave the site to go for some other website but you view the video right inside Google’s website. With this feature, Google is also changing its form from being a content adviser to content creator. In fact they initiated this much before Google Video – Think Google Print!!. Google is really initiating a convergence wave wherein it is going to enter new markets and new competitors previously never thought of – News Agencies, Media, Video Content sites, eCommerce store, Payment Options et.al – the list is ever-growing.

Now traditionally, the eyeball factor on a website has been measured in a relatively crude manner – Hits, Pageviews, Reach (No. of Unique visitors). These parameters are fast getting irrelevant either due to newer technologies (read AJAX) or the realization that none of these metrics make sense in isolation. “Amount of time spent on a website” is soon becoming a strong indicator of the “amount of attention paid”. Google Video does beautifully on this metric too. An average video is at least 2-3 minutes long and when viewed in the streamline option would mean all those 2-3 minutes are spent “within” Google.

Other interesting aspect of Google video is it provides a much richer advertising option to advertisers. The uni-sentence blue colored copy text can now be replaced by much cooler “value propositions” that not only entertains but convinces too. Thus resulting into higher Click-Through-Rates, in turn meaning higher bid amounts for Google. This, I believe, will be the first significant “intrusion” of the Internet in the traditional TV media.

Google also provides the option for TV content providers to upload their video content on Google Video, so that it can be indexed and stored in the Google Video Database. These videos need not be full length feature series but can be teasers for a new movie, or a television series or a talk show. Thus, now the content provider themselves become advertisers or vice versa.

Moreover Google Video is also not only about advertisement sponsored content, it plans to serve paid content too. Google Video store is aimed at precisely that. Missed a game, an episode..don’t worry such subscribe with Google Video store and you are on. It took Television a few decades to make the transition from advertisement sponsored to paid content, with the internet those decades have shrunk down to just a few months.

Google and the Internet just rocks.

Having said that Google Video is not without its challenges pertaining to enough information for richer indexing, illicit content, copyright violation as well as high bandwidth requirements to dish out those streamlined videos. But I believe these are operational details and the minds at Googleplex are already working on finding a solution. Times surely are changing. Happy Googling.