Video previews for finding the right video quickly

As you know, Google gives previews of the web pages shown in the SERP.  You activate the preview just by clicking on the small magnifying glass icon (next to the star) in the result block.  Or, truthfully, you can click anywhere in the result block.  

But Google just announced the ability to preview videos in place. 


Why would you want to do this?  Answer:  When there are lots of diverse videos in the SERP and you'd like to identify the right one quickly.  


When the results are pretty much all the same, it's easy:.  Example -- for the query [ basketball dunks ]  you'll see there are lots of videos.  

Then, when your mouse is in the result block area, you'll get the pop-up showing the different segments of the video.  This multiple clip preview usually lets you figure out quickly if this is the one you want or not.  

As you'll see, the video is actually live--you can fast forward by clicking in the next clip segment and jump right to that piece of the overall video. 

This is REALLY handy when the video results are more diverse, and you can't really tell them apart except by clicking though to the result.  In the case of a query like [ glider path thermal ], you'll find videos about hang gliding, remote-control gliders, thermal gloves and full-size gliders.  

In a case like this, the video preview can save you a lot of time! 

Search on!