Categories: Articles

The Second Biggest Search Engine

The Search Engine wars continue to rage on.

We all know that Google dominates and that Bing (Microsoft‘s search engine), Yahoo! and Ask.com continue to hold their own. What many people fail to realize is that if you look at the overall amount of queries/searches done across all of the major websites, portals, etc…, that the second largest search engine is not Bing or Yahoo!… it’s actually YouTube.

We do like searching for answers and seeing a video response to our queries.

Does that seem hard to believe? YouTube (which is owned by Google) is the second largest search engine. Back when I was having my conversation with Julien Smith (co-author of Trust Agents along with Chris Brogan and a co-host on Media Hacks) about ways in which I could get the word out (even more) about this Six Pixels of Separation Blog and Podcast, Smith also recommended taking all of the audio interviews from the Podcast and releasing them on YouTube (along with some semblance of a visual slideshow by grabbing photos of the guests from places that allow it). It seemed like a lot of work, so when I kept on prodding him for why, he was the one who reminded me of the magnitude of traffic and searches that YouTube represents in the overall scope of the Internet and media (more on my conversation with Julien right here: Five Reasons Why This Blog Is A Failure).

It’s more than just the traffic that online video generates.

It’s also about the education. Recently, I was looking for a strong tutorial on the basics of Keynote. The default thought is to look at both Blogs and books to see if a Dummies Guide is too basic or what the options are. After doing a couple of generic searches online, I came across this amazing video series/Podcast by EmpowerMac called, Keynote For Beginners, which is a twelve-part video series (each episode running about ten minutes). Amazing content, easy to watch and simple to follow along to.

YouTube is the new encyclopedia.

Not sure how to wash a dog? Change a diaper? Jailbreak an iPhone? Build a deck? Do a magic trick? Play the solo in Van Halen‘s ‘Running With The Devil’? Understand what Google TV will be? Whatever random question you have, someone, somewhere has created a video with the answer and the tutorial on how to do it.

It begs the question: how well are you (and the brands you represent) leveraging the power of online video to really connect to your consumers as a thought leader and a brand that cares?

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.