Search Engine Land reports that Google have been testing out a new feature in search which highlights key moments in video timelines.

Google just went live with the "in this video" timeline feature in search. The new function works on English YouTube videos. Search Engine Land says it spied Google testing the new feature, which the search engine giant is calling “key moments in videos,” this week.

This is what you are going to see when you come across the new feature in search:


”Google-Key-Moments”


Adding this function to the timeline of videos is going to make it a lot easier for a viewer to find specific content or moments within videos. Google is saying that “When you search for things like how-to videos that have multiple steps, or long videos like speeches or a documentary, search will provide links to key moments within the video, based on timestamps provided by content creators. You’ll be able to easily scan to see whether a video has what you’re looking for, and find the relevant section of the content. For people who use screen readers, this change also makes video content more accessible.”

So, how exactly is Google making this feature happen? Well, they say this function will work for English videos hosted on YouTube, but the creators will need to have provided timestamp information in the video description. This in-video wizardry isn’t currently supported outside of YouTube, but Google has drawn up a form which is asking video creators about their interests outside of YouTube. You can view that form right here. Users who are not on YouTube will be required to mark their video timelines by employing the Video Schema tool. Then they will need to fill out the form on the link.

Video is massive at the moment and consequently, Google ends up showing a heck of a lot of video content within its search results. I’d be interested to hear about how you guys are using video to boost your own marketing strategies and how your results are affected when you begin to utilize the new key moments functionality. I think it would be interesting to compare the performance of videos with and without this feature.

Google seem to think that adding this function is making videos more user-friendly, and I suspect they are right. But will this make conversion rates higher or lower? When we use key moments, we are essentially making it easier for users to skip content and not miss out on the sections of video which interest them most! I’d love to hear about how this is going to affect different videos and varying strategies.