Google Search experimenting with new 'Short Videos' filter

Google appears to be testing a new ‘Short Videos’ filter for Search. As the name applies, this new search filter will let you quickly search for videos that are short in duration. It’s likely that it would display short videos from the likes of Instagram, TikTok and even YouTube Shorts in the results. Back in 2020, Google began testing a carousel that would aggregate content from TikTok and Instagram. Then in 2021, Google began indexing Instagram and TikTok videos. So it seems the Search giant is finding ways to make short videos more easily accessible.

However, there’s no dedicated filter to search for this short-form media right now. You have to rely on inputting keywords like ‘Instagram’ or ‘TikTok’ along with your query to see videos from these platforms when in the ‘Video’ search filter. But with a dedicated ‘Short Videos’ filter, we’re guessing all you would have to do is add the search term and Google Search will spit out relevant videos. The existence of the new filter was discovered by popular Android tipster, AssembleDebug, who tipped off PiunikaWeb. They spotted the new filter within the Google Search app on Android. Here’s a screenshot for reference:

The new ‘Short Videos’ filter joins the Video, Images, News, Shopping, and other search filters on Google. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test the filter as tapping on the option refreshed the page and the ‘Short Videos’ filter disappeared. So it’s highly likely that the filter is in its early stages of testing and may or may not be a permanent search filter.

That said, while the tipster spotted it in the Google app on Android, it’ll most likely be available on the web too, if Google decides to go forward with this experiment. Speaking of the Google app, we recently spotted the company preparing to bring the Gemini toggle to the app, similar to its iOS counterpart. Nevertheless, do you think a dedicated ‘Short Videos’ filter would be a useful addition to Search? Let us know in the comments below.

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