Category: Google

Google Search Integrates Links To Specific Moments In Online Video

On By William HauserIn Google, Search EngineLeave a comment
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Photo: REUTERS TV

Google, who has been one of the main drivers behind the constantly changing methods to search engines, announced Sunday that they will be implementing a big change when it comes to searching for information online. Google Search will now allow users to have access to links that will bring them to specific moments in videos that match what they typed in the search bar. Essentially, Google’s search engine will be able to give online users the power to scan and find the exact moments in videos that addresses what they typed in.

Innovation such as this has left many individuals shocked and excited to try it out for themselves. Before, Google’s search engines were only capable of displaying links to entire videos that matched what was entered in the search bar. By allowing users to access specific moments in videos that relate to their searches, Google employees believe individuals will be able to save countless amounts of time when browsing the web.

“People can now search for content and scan a video to determine whether a video has specific content. This change also makes video content more accessible for those using screen readers” (Laurie Sullivan).

According to an updated forecast released by Publicis Media, time spent watching online video is expected to expand more than 20% in the next two years reaching a peak average of 100 minutes daily. Google appears to be recognizing this trend and moving towards making video content much more accessible and easy to find for all of its users.

YouTube creators have also been working in parallel with this innovation movement in search engines by having the ability to add time-stamp information to link important areas/points in the description section of their videos. Google’s new search technology will be able to recognize the text and time-stamp YouTube creators have put in their description therefore bringing users to that specific point in the video.

This is just another clear example of the increasing processing power and ability of online search engines that we use every single day. Clearly, there is a large amount of benefit from these improvements such as researchers being able to find specific video content they are looking for much easier or even marketers gaining the ability to show users their important content in different points of videos. Yet, I believe a critical eye/analysis should be cast on these changes to consider the consequences that may come. With online users expecting to increase as well as the time spent on these platforms, “internet addiction” could spike drastically. Our generation is moving towards this kind of hyper-reality where the power to access information and data through stronger technology is rising. At what point will this ability be too much or rather too dangerous in a sense? Technology will never stop improving so we must be prepared for the pros and cons that will most certainly come with it.

Sources:

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/340811/google-search-now-links-to-specific-moments-conte.html

 

 

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‘Original Reporting’ will be emphasized in Google Searches

On By William StroughIn Consumer behavior, Google, News MediaLeave a comment

Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, discussing Google’s News project. The company said it changed its search algorithm to highlight original reporting.
Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive at Google, discussing how Google will change its algorithm to highlight original reporting.

Reporting today is a lot different than how it was before. Reporters may take weeks or months developing a story, break the story to the world, and then every other organization steals the content rephrases it and posts it on their site. These other sites get just as much traffic and make just as much money off of the article without any reporting at all from these impersonator sites. Google has said in a recent conference that they are starting to combat imitative websites by changing their algorithm. 

Google’s new Google News Project is going to change the way the show results for certain topics that put emphasis on original reporting or the first story that broke the news These changes do not remove all the impersonators but it gives an advantage to the original report. This is a good change for Google because everyone uses Google for everything. These new changes to the algorithm give news companies more of an incentive to create breaking stories because the credit for these stories will be given to who creates the story instead of all the other companies that would steal the work and post it on their site. 

With these guidelines and algorithms Google would also put more respectable outlets that have a history of honest reporting higher up in the search query. These are important changes because investigative journalism is extremely important and needed in society but if no one is going to get credit for the hundreds of hours they take to expose such stories why would anyone want to do all this work. By Google coming out and making these stories more accessible Google is gaining the trust of these news organizations and honestly just helping all of use or freedom of the press. Creating more ways for original reporting to be put on the top of searches helps everyone from the Google user, to the journalist writing these articles, to even Google itself.