The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the views of short-form videos. Around 84% of online audiences in the United States noted consuming videos less than 10 minutes long to help them cope with their daily lives. With the rise of such quick videos, Google tests adding short-form videos on search results.
In a tweet made by Brian Freiesleben, who runs Search Engine Virtuoso, he showed a new section of search results when typing “Packers” on Google search. The new section which is said to be Google Discover shows a series of short-form videos from Instagram Reels and Tiktok related to the keyword being searched. It appears on top of the NFL game schedules (which is currently on the season) for the Green Bay Packers football team. When a user clicks the short-form video link, it will display the web version of the said video. Other short-form videos like India’s Trell, Google’s Tangi, and YouTube Shorts will also be added to the search results.
Google used to index videos on their search results since 2015. This is in partnership with Twitter. It’s not yet clear if the search engine partnered with Facebook/Instagram and Tiktok regarding the indexing of the short-form video. The feature is under beta-testing on mobile devices and mobile web.
Google tests adding short-form videos on search results starting 30 December 2020.
Implications for Marketers:
Google is looking to broaden its search into short-form videos as they are gaining popularity among online users. For marketers, this can mean a change in the content approach for 2021. Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts ads should be considered as marketing potentials. Creating quick how-to videos or highlighting clips of product usage may be the in-thing.
