Recently, Google has been working on a new method to provide its users with a more interactive search experience on YouTube. This feature, called 'Ask YouTube', allows users to conduct their searches in a conversational style.
When this new system is activated, a 'Ask YouTube' button appears in the search bar. When users click this button, they are presented with various question suggestions. For example, questions are suggested on topics like 'funny baby video clips', 'summary of volleyball rules', or 'a brief history of Apollo 11's moon landing'. When the search bar is left empty, users are directed to a special page to see the suggested questions.
AI-Powered Search Experience
When a search is made, an almost empty page with a loading icon is displayed initially, but within a few seconds, this page is filled with details. During this process, various content types such as long videos, YouTube Shorts, and text summaries are presented. In fact, 'Ask YouTube' operates on a model similar to Google's existing AI Overviews system; the aim here is to directly answer the user's query.
This innovation may also affect how content creators' works are discovered. While traditional YouTube searches highlight videos that match strong titles and descriptions, this AI-powered system can rank content based on different signals. These signals include how well the content answers common questions and how informative the transcripts are. Therefore, content creators may need to align their content with this new system.
Currently, this feature is only available to YouTube Premium subscribers living in the United States who are 18 years or older.