At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool.
I was rumaging through piles of newspapers and an article jumped out at me. It’s from earlier in the year, but the content is current nonetheless…
I know that video is a more efficient way to communicate ideas. It’s interesting now to see how much the use of online video is changing. Below is an article from The New York Times about a nine year old boy who searches YouTube instead of Google when he wants to learn something. I wonder if YouTube will be the next Google?
==== (Excerpted from The New York Times, by Miguel Helft)
Faced with writing a school report on an Australian animal, Tyler Kennedy began where many students begin these days: by searching the Internet. But Tyler didn’t use Google or Yahoo. He searched for information about the platypus on YouTube.
“I found some videos that gave me pretty good information about how it mates, how it survives, what it eats,” Tyler said. Similarly, when Tyler gets stuck on one of his favorite games on the Wii, he searches YouTube for tips on how to move forward. And when he wants to explore the ins and outs of collecting Bakugan Battle Brawlers cards, which are linked to a Japanese anime television series, he goes to YouTube again.
While he favors YouTube for searches, he said he also turns to Google from time to time.
“When they don’t have really good results on YouTube, then I use Google,” said Tyler, who is 9 and lives in Alameda. Calif.
Tyler’s way of experiencing the Web — primarily through video — may not be mainstream, at least not yet. But his use of YouTube as his favorite search engine underscores a shift that is much broader than the quirky habits of children.
The explosion of all types of video content on YouTube and other sites is quickly transforming online video from a medium strictly for entertainment and news into one that is also a reference tool. As a result, video search, on YouTube and across other sites, is rapidly morphing into a new entry point into the Web, one that could rival mainstream search for many types of queries. <read full article>
April 25th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
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May 18th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
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