As we already know, Google loves to include YouTube videos in the search results whenever possible it seems relevant. But something I noticed today, Yahoo! is also doing that.
Here is a quick look at how Yahoo! is doing it.
I want to think that Yahoo! would be sending traffic to their own properties, since their video platform has nearly 500 Dilbert related videos, but apparently Yahoo! likes YouTube’s content more than their own.
Update: After reviewing Yahoo!’s video platform a bit further, they really don’t have that much content. It syndicates out to a number of other networks, including YouTube.
Good job Yahoo!, way to send traffic to your competition ;)
August 28th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
If you click “Play Video” it just plays it right then and there on the Yahoo search results page using some DHTML sorta magic. In that case, Yahoo isn’t sending traffic to the competition but is actually using Google’s own bandwidth without any sort of penalty.
It’d be interesting though to see stats though on what people actually click on - the “Play Video” button is obvious and attractive, however it is lower on the page then the hyperlink to Google, and may seem jarring in search results.
August 28th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Brian,
Right, it’s not directly sending traffic, but each time they show a YouTube result, they’re losing the eyeballs that could be viewing traffic on Yahoo!’s properties.
Bandwidth is probably not even the last thing on their mind since they have so much of it. It’s more about the eyeballs and the ad revenue.
That’s ad revenue that they could be keeping by sending traffic to their own properties.
Note, I have never seen Yahoo! Video come up in the Google search results. Ironic? Not even remotely (in my opinion).