GoKawiilGoogle is expanding YouTube's search capabilities so you can ask more conversational questions -- and jump straight to the most relevant parts of a video.
The upcoming feature, called Ask YouTube, brings a dose of Google's AI-powered search results to its video platform. You can make more complex queries like "creator reviews of cozy games to play before bedtime" or "how to teach your kid to ride a bike." YouTube will then show a list of videos, including Shorts, related to that topic. You can also ask follow-up questions to further pinpoint what you're looking for.
Taking things a step further, Ask YouTube will jump straight to the part of a video that addresses what you need, so you don't have to hunt for that information yourself.
In a briefing on Monday ahead of Google I/O, CEO Sundar Pichai said Ask YouTube will make "information much more digestible and easy to navigate."
Ask YouTube will show detailed video results for more complex searches. Google
Ask YouTube is available now for Premium members in the US aged 18 and up. Google says it's slated to roll out more broadly soon.
Google already surfaces relevant videos in Search and AI Overviews -- summaries that appear at the top of search results -- along with more text-centric results. Ask YouTube puts videos exclusively in the spotlight. The ability to jump straight to a specific moment in a clip builds upon an existing function in Google Search that determines the most helpful part of videos like how-tos or tutorials -- skipping lengthy intros or portions deemed irrelevant to a query.
But making it easier to jump straight to specific sections across more videos could be a blow to creators, who rely on watch time and viewer retention. If people tune in for just a snippet, it could eat into creator revenues and affect overall video performance. Ask YouTube could also lead viewers to miss out on important context discussed in other parts of a video that weren't highlighted.
Google's AI Overviews have been criticized for deterring people from clicking on source links, instead pulling information from various sites and distilling it (sometimes inaccurately) into bite-sized summaries. This can lead publishers and other platforms to lose out on page views and revenue streams. Other generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT have similarly been accused of exploiting sources without proper attribution.
Whether Ask YouTube will face similar criticism isn't clear. On the one hand, it could help surface more relevant videos and make it easier for users to find what they need. But it could also reinforce a broader shift toward extracting only the most useful nuggets, leading to negative ripple effects for creators.
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