Music Album Filtering in Google Video

Google started to learn more about music. After improving the Web search results for music videos by adding metadata, Google added the same enhancements to Google Video. Now you can even find a list of popular albums when you search for an artist. Select one of the albums and you'll restrict the results to the songs from the album. The nice thing is that Google's algorithms make sure that the results are diverse and songs aren't repeated too often.

Videos Uploaded to Google Video Will Be Removed Next Month

Google sent the following message to everyone who uploaded videos to Google Video:

Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we're removing the remaining hosted content. We've always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.

On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We've added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don't want to download your content, you don't need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)

We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you haven't done so already. YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner. (...)

If you have many videos on Google Video, you may need to use the paging controls located on the bottom right of the page to access them all.

Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.

Thank you for being a Google Video user.

It's really disappointing to see that Google doesn't provide an option to migrate your videos to YouTube. In fact, this option should've been available two years ago, when Google Video became a search engine. There are about 2.8 million videos hosted by Google Video and it's hard to believe that all of them will be manually uploaded to YouTube.

Google Video is an archive of high-quality videos: there are many documentaries, interviews, lectures and it's sad to see them disappear. Even if Google Answers was discontinued in 2006, the archived content is still useful.




{ Thanks, Richard and Kevin. }

Google Video Previews

Google's instant previews for video sites weren't very useful because most video sites use Flash and the software that generates thumbnails can't handle Flash. That's probably one of the reasons why Google replaced the standard screenshots with short clips from the videos. By default, the sound is muted, but you can change this setting. The feature is also available at Google Video next to some search results.

"When it comes to videos, people want to spend less time searching and more time watching. That's why we added an enhancement to Instant Previews—the ability to preview videos. Click once on the magnifying glass next to the title of any video search result in universal or video mode. For some videos, you'll now be able to play through a set of four short segments from the video to see if it’s what you’re looking for (video providers have to opt to make the previews available, so you won't find it for every video yet)," explains Google.


Even if Google announced this feature a couple of weeks ago, it's still spotty, so it may not be available for you. You can also try Bing's Video Search, which offers a similar feature that probably inspired Google.

Google Video's Strange Disclaimer

Google Video's homepage shows a strange message below the list of query suggestions: "In accordance with local laws and regulations, some results were removed from this list." The message is displayed for every query you enter, so it's unlikely that some of the suggestions are removed.


Update: Google says that "the appearance of the message on every search was in fact a bug and has since been corrected."

Search for TV Shows in Google Video

Google Video has a new filter that restricts search results to TV shows. For example, if you search for [Seinfeld], Google lets you select one of the 9 seasons of the show. Google shows the name of each episode and a list of sites where you can watch it.



Google doesn't restrict the results to sites that are licensed to stream TV shows, so many videos are from Russian sites like Yandex and Smotri.

As you probably noticed, Google Video no longer has the option to play videos inline and Google says that there are no plans to restore it. The feature has been gradually removed from Google web search, for YouTube videos and now it's no longer available.

Google Video Finds Playlists

Google's video search engine started to index playlists from YouTube and other video sites. Playlists are mixed with standard video search results, but you'll probably find them on the first search results pages if they're relevant.

It's interesting to note that Google's algorithms detect groups of videos even if they aren't called playlists.


"Our intent is to represent the video content of the internet fairly and accurately. We don't give special ranking preference to videos hosted by YouTube or Google Video, nor do we manipulate search results in any way. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the Web to determine the inclusion and ranking of videos in our search results. After determining the content of the video using our spidering technology, Google then combines sophisticated text-matching techniques to find videos that are both important and relevant to your search. Our technology examines dozens of aspects of the video's content (including number of hits and rating) to determine if it's a good match for your query," explains Google.

Google Video Finds Cartoons and Slideshows

Google Video has a new feature that lets you restrict search results to cartoons and slideshows. After performing a search, click "Show options" and select "Cartoons" or "Slideshows" from the list of options. Google uses a video recognition technology that tries to classify videos, but the accuracy is far from impressive.


Unfortunately, Google's video search engine ruined the "TV view" feature that allowed you to play videos without opening a new page. YouTube videos are no longer played in the embedded player, while the other videos are played on the search results page only if you click on "Play video".

A Simple Design for Google Video

Even though you can no longer upload videos to Google Video, the service hasn't been abandoned and it's still actively developed. The focus has been switched to video search and Google Video powers YouTube Search.

I still think that disabling the uploads to Google Video was a mistake: probably the most useful videos hosted by Google Video are longer than 10 minutes and couldn't be uploaded to YouTube. You can't upload Charlie Chaplin's "The Kid" to YouTube without splitting it.

To make the transition to YouTube easier, Google redesigned Google Video, removed some features that were rarely used and made the video player smaller.

Speed selection in Google Video

You can now select which speed to play a video in Google Video.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Video

How to access what's new:
To select your speed, use the speed control to watch a video at slower or greater than real time.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/08/getting-up-to-speed-in-google-video-for.html

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Two new features in Google Video

The following new features are available in Google Video:
– The ability to add captions to your videos
– The ability to upload videos up to 1 GB in size (increased from the 300 MB previous limit)

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
To add captions, create a timed text file for your video. Go to your video's play page and click 'Closed Captions', select your language and browse to your timed text file. Click 'Upload captions' to upload your text file.

To play a video with captions, click the 'CC' on the player. If more than one caption track language is available, select the appropriate one from the menu that appears.

For more information:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/03/google-video-for-business-now-featuring.html

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Administrators can now specify authorized Google Video uploaders

Premier Edition administrators can now specify up to 100 authorized Google Video uploaders if they don't want every employee to have uploading capabilities.

Editions included:
Premier Edition

Languages included:
US English

How to access what's new:
From the administrative control panel, choose 'Video' from the 'Service settings' menu. Next, enter up to 100 authorized users in the 'Video Uploaders' box and click 'Save changes'.

For more information:
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/collaboration.html#video

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Google Video for secure private video sharing available in Education Edition

Schools using Education Edition can now share videos privately and securely among faculty and staff with Google Video. Videos can be uploaded, shared with specific permissions, and watched by authorized viewers with no special hardware or software. Each school gets 3GB of video storage per user account, but admins must first whitelist specific users to give them permission to upload videos. Google Video is available for free trial in Education Edition until March 9, 2009, at which point it will cost $10 per user, per year.

Editions impacted:
Education Edition

Languages impacted:
US English

How to access what's new:
Education Edition administrators can enable Google Video by signing in to the control panel, clicking 'Add more services' and then 'Add it now'. Administrators using a non-English version of the control panel must temporarily switch to the 'Next Generation' English version of the control panel to enable Google Video. Google Video will remain enabled after switching back to the non-English version of the control panel.

Once enabled, Google Video is available for whitelisted Education Edition users at http://video.google.com/a/example.com, but remember to replace "example.com" with your actual domain name.

For more information:
http://google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=106620

Premier Edition now includes Google Video for secure, private video sharing

Companies using Premier Edition can now share videos privately and securely among employees with Google Video at no additional cost. Videos can be uploaded, shared with specific permissions, and watched by authorized viewers with no special hardware or software. Each Premier Edition domain gets 3GB of video storage per user account.

Editions impacted:
Premier Edition

Languages impacted:
US English

How to access what's new:
Google Video will be enabled by default for all new Premier Edition customers.

Existing Premier Edition customers who have opted in to 'Automatically add new Google services' from the administrative control panel will have access to Google Video shortly.

Existing Premier Edition customers who have not opted in to automatically get new services can manually enable Google Video from the control panel. Sign in to the control panel, click 'Add more services' and then 'Add it now'.

Administrators using a non-English version of the control panel must temporarily switch to the 'Next Generation' English version of the control panel to manually enable Google Video. Google Video will remain enabled after switching back to the non-English version of the control panel.

Once enabled, the Google Video service is available for Premier Edition users at http://video.google.com/a/example.com, but remember to replace "example.com" with your actual domain name.

For more information:
http://www.google.com/apps/collaboration

Upload Videos To Google Video Faster

Google Video has an easier way to upload videos: using a simple form. Google Video accepts video in AVI, ASF, QuickTime, Windows Media and MPEG formats. The codecs allowed include H.264, H.263, MPEG 1/2/4 and motion JPEG.

The form can be used only for videos under 100MB. The other videos can be uploaded using Video Upload program, like before.

This is a great move from Google. Paul Botin wrote in Slate that "Google has failed to take off for the simple reason that it’s more annoying to use than YouTube. To begin with, you have to install Google’s special uploading application." Now you don't need to install the software. And Google Video doesn't have limitations regarding video duration, like YouTube (10 minutes maximum).

Download Google Videos As AVI Files

Update (Sept. 2007): This doesn't work anymore, but you can still download the videos as MP4 by clicking on "Download for Video iPod/Sony PSP". After Google acquired YouTube, Google Video started to remove features and to morph into a video search engine.

If you want to save videos from Google Video in Windows and Mac OSX, you only have the option to download them as MP4 files, in a lower quality that's suitable for the iPod and PSP. Google removed the option to save the videos in a higher quality after closing the video store and discontinuing Google Video Player. But you can still save the videos as AVI files using a bookmarklet (a bookmark that only contains JavaScript code), as described below.

Make sure the link toolbar is visible in your browser. You can enable it if you go to the View menu in your browser, click on Toolbars and check:
* Bookmarks Toolbar in Firefox
* Personal Bar in Opera
* Links in Internet Explorer


For Firefox and Opera, drag and drop the link below to the toolbar. For Internet Explorer, right-click on the link, select "Add to Favorites", ignore the security warning and choose "Links" from the list of folders (Internet Explorer no longer supports dragging bookmarklets).

Download Google Video

The link toolbar should look like this:


Next time when you see a video you like on Google Video, click on the bookmarklet and save the video. Note that this only works for videos hosted at Google Video, not for YouTube or other third-party sites that are available from Google Video.


Because Google adds a non-standard header to the videos, not all players can render them. Some good applications that ignore the headers and play Google videos are Media Player Classic (Windows), VideoLan (Windows/Mac/Linux), MPlayer (Windows/Mac/Linux). If you want to remove the special header, so you can play the videos with Windows Media Player, try this small tool.

Google Video Ranking

Google Video has a new feature called video ranking that shows the top 100 popular videos. Google Video still doesn't show public statistics for videos, like YouTube, but this is a good start. Google Video Top 100 feels exactly like an MTV Countdown: you have today's position, yesterday's ranking, a thumbnail, a short description of the video and the link to the video.

Currently, the most popular video is a Carlsberg ad for this summer’s Football World Cup: Probably Greatest Pub Team in World, in which Bobby Robson manages a pub football team filled with former England legends, including Bobby Charlton, Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle.

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