Users who conduct a video search on Google Video can now play back results in a video window that appears within the browser. The company promises that users on PC, Linux and Mac machines will all be able to easily access the videos regardless of what format they were initially encoded in.
The new service uses technology from Macromedia’s Flash 7 software utility, playing fluidly in a large screen with considerably less bandwidth requirements than traditional video playback.
Peter Chane, senior business product manager for Google Video, said several playback enhancements come with the service. Aside from providing users the ability to pause, rewind, fast-forward and adjust the volume on video played within Google, the service also lets users play 10-second video previews directly from the search results page.
Chane said to celebrate the launch of the new video service, Google is hosting the series premiere of the UPN television network show, “Everybody Hates Chris,” until this Thursday.
“We're working with all sorts of owners of video content to help them bring their content online," Chane said. “You'll see more high-quality video content on Google Video in months to come.”
The Google Video service originally launched in January, but failed to cause much of a stir because it didn’t actually provide videos for users to view. Instead, the initial service merely showed still photos accompanied by transcripts from television broadcasts.
The company redesigned it service in the hopes that major television and movie studios, as well as amateur filmmakers, would submit videos to be included on the site.