YouTube Search Tricks: a Look into Youtube Search Filters
October 12, 2012 | By annsmarty |
I know I can’t be the only person who hates YouTube’s search engine, even though it is run by the mighty Google! You would think that being owned by Google would mean they had the search feature down, but even with autocorrect you run the risk of thousands of results that have nothing to do with what you were looking for.
Since so many videos are uploaded to YouTube every day, there is too much entering the search pool to really narrow it down. You have to have a s pretty specific set of keywords and hope that what you are looking for is an official version, because that is what will be posted in the results first, with anything else buried.
But there are a few ways to get around this. Youtube filters can be great help!
To see the available filters, click on “Filters” button right next to the number of search results:
Filter #1 – Upload Date
It sounds over simplified, but being as specific as possible in your search is always a good idea.
Youtube would give you an option to see most recent results which were uploaded one day / week / month ago.
Search trick: Use the date filter for reputation management or to monitor your competitors’ efforts:
Filter #2 – Result Type
There are four types of results you can filter by: channel, playlist, movie and show.
Search trick: One of my favorite ways to search is by taking advantage of people’s playlists they have built on YouTube. It’s like hand-picked collections of the topics you are interested in!
Once you find one, you can play all videos in a row, or skip them as you choose.
Filter #3 – Duration
I hate going onto YouTube for a clip and having sift through dozens of results that are a few seconds long. If you are looking for something that is longer, like a full scene or even an episode, be sure to include it in the search. All it takes is saying something like ‘Criminal Minds, long’.
Filter #4 – Features
Thanks to some fast-evolving technology, you can get extremely high-quality videos on YouTube. You can search based on this kind of format, if you want to. The available search options are: High-definition, closed caption, partner video, creative commons, live now and 3D.
Search trick: Use “partner” filter to discover most popular channels in your niche!
Filter #5 – by Most Popular Channel
This is the newest filter added to the option list. I have yet to understand how these are determined but I am glad one of my channels MyBlogGuest did make it there:
Handy tip: Commas should be placed between keywords to activate the filters. So, if you were looking for Lady Gaga’s actual channel, you would put ‘Lady Gaga, Channel’ in the search box. Or, if you want to find something within a certain period of time, you need to type ‘Lady Gaga, this month’, or whatever amount of time you would be wanting to go back.
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