16(!) Youtube videos before the first Web listing

[1script]

Never seen anything like that before, very unsettling. Google is now pushing their own properties like crazy, to the point where it seems to me it no longer makes any point to use it to find information. On the other hand, if people are coming there to mostly find entertainment, then perhaps it makes sense to push videos forward so much. Regardless, the actual query has absolutely nothing to do with entertainment - a mundane household task.

It's actually 15 Youtube and 1 Ehow video. Well, since we know that Google and Ehow are joined at the hip, it's all the same to me... Ehow is at #2. Make no mistake, Ehow is not completely let down: once Web listings start, Ehow has 8(!) more of those, too.

Also, it's 9 videos with video icons and then 7 more that look like "normal" listings but are Youtube anyway, and only then Web listings start.

Funny thing, too: I was trying to make a printscreen of this horrible SERP but I don't have monitor with vertical resolution high enough to fit two full screens of videos before the Web content starts. Talk about Above The Fold! This time it's more like Above Two Folds! ATF->WTF ?!

[TheMadScientist]

... to the point where it seems to me it no longer makes any point to use it to find information.

FYP - to the point where it seems to me it no longer makes any sense to SEO for them specifically, because IMO they're going to continue doing this and making outside properties harder and harder to access since they're committed to no longer being a search engine...

One of the 'oddest' things to me about their commitment to not being a search engine and providing 'the one right answer' someday, is they had it right when they gave me choices and alternatives in the results for my queries ... They didn't need to change anything, because a variety of sites was 'the one right answer' for me.

When I look for something on the Internet, variety is actually what I want to see, not some 'answer' from Google or only Google properties, partners, friends, whatever, but it's entirely possible I'm in the minority ... Maybe 'normal' people will be happy when Google gets things narrowed down to the point where the Internet Google shows people only consists of Google, YouTube, eHow and Wikipedia?

[Andem]

I don't remember ever seeing quite 16 videos as the first results.

But I do know that YouTube has become a spam farm because it is so easy to rank via YouTube: choose a target keyword, create a video with a couple of frames featuring an enticing image and include a link to whatever malware-infested site you want in the video description.

Rinse and repeat. I wonder how many have become very wealthy using this technique.

[martinibuster]

Google is no longer a search engine. It's a knowledge engine. (There's a post by Ted about that around here but couldn't find it to link to it.) It's no longer about the ten links, hasn't for awhile. It's not about superlistings either. Google is moving toward finding knowledge based content. Particularly for short phrases up to three words, there are more and more SERPs that have PDF files in them, .edu sites, dot gov sites. Think about how that relates to knowledge and what Google is trying to do.

I'm not saying 16 videos in a row is right, that's weird. But it's also an opportunity for gaining insight because glitches are like a crack in a wall allowing a glimpse of what's underneath, if just a glimpse.

[manny123]

I have seen a ton of youtube videos in the SERPs since that last panda refresh. Perhaps this is a generational thing, but I would much rather find the answer I am looking for in text than to have to watch a video for X minutes with the hopes that I will find the answer. In a perfect search, I get the answer I want just by reading the snippet under the result.

[driller41]

Yes, I see a lot of Youtube spam sometimes and I am also seeing these worthless articles from Ehow ranking again now, they seemed to disappear with Panda but they are now back again big time.

Add in google images for every listing - even when it is not helpful which is most times and things look bad for SEO.

[martinibuster]

In a perfect search, I get the answer I want just by reading the snippet under the result.

Those days are over. Even the name of the department Matt Cutts works for has been renamed from Search Quality Team to the Knowledge Team (announced at SES SF 2012 keynote speech). From NYTimes article [query.nytimes.com]:

After Larry Page became chief executive of Google last year, he changed its mission from search to knowledge because he said he thought finding a Web page was too narrow.

It's to your benefit to begin thinking in terms of knowledge and how that intersects with what Google is showing. This is reality. This is what we have to work with. This is the state of search at this moment.

[aristotle]

16(!) Youtube videos before the first Web listing

I don't know what search term you used to get this result. But I wonder how many youtube videos you would find at the top if you did the same search in Bing.

[manny123]

The first youtube video is on page 3 of bing. The same search on google has 11 youtube results starting with the third result.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

making outside properties harder and harder to access since they're committed to no longer being a search engine...

Say that to yourself 100 times as you do things to try and improve search results. Eventually the little voice will sink in and you'll just worry about content and creating your own community(forum) or following(social media), and not about Google. Tic-toc...

p.s. 16 is nothing, I've seen 78/100.