YouTube drastically improves search with translated videos and chapter previews
What's the story
Recently, YouTube announced three new features for its users marking a significant step up in functionality. Firstly, YouTube will start showing video chapters on the search results page itself. Additionally, the video snippets from the desktop app are finally on their way to the mobile app. Lastly, YouTube is making efforts to improve the reach and discoverability of foreign-language content. Here are more details.
Convenience
Video chapters will now be visible on search results page
With the first development, the feature that divides a video into sections (called chapters) on the seek bar will now be available on the search results page directly. From the search page, users will be able to jump right into the chapter they want to watch instead of opening the video and then using the seek bar to skip to the desired chapter.
Time-saver
Like desktop, mobile users can now watch video previews
The second improvement is specifically for YouTube's mobile app users. On the desktop website, viewers can hover their cursor on the thumbnails to see short snippets of the video. Now, this feature has been expanded to the search page of the mobile apps on Android and iOS so viewers can preview content before committing to watching the entire video.
Details
Automatic translation of videos will help viewers access more content
Lastly, YouTube will show viewers videos made in other languages in case you don't find relevant content on your local search page. YouTube will take the onus of automatically translating everything including the foreign creators' video titles, captions, and descriptions. For creators who are comfortable in just their native language, this feature could be immensely useful in improving viewership by reaching broader audiences.
Lost in translation
These changes are rolling out to mobile, desktop users globally
However, if you've used YouTube's auto-generated live captioning system even for a video in English, you'll know that it isn't spot-on all the time. I'm afraid that international creators' content processed through a similar captioning/translation system could leave a lot to be desired in terms of accuracy. Nevertheless, these improvements are rolling out to YouTube's website and app globally as you read this.
India-specific
YouTube is testing feature to provide external search results
In Indian and Indonesian markets, YouTube is testing one more feature so YouTube search results are complemented with links to other websites from Google Search. Explaining the reason behind the test in a blog post, YouTube's Director of Product Management Pablo Paniagua said, "Not all searches may have enough high-quality or relevant video content to fully address what you're looking for."