YouTube to automatically identify in-video products to suggest related content

Have you ever watched a YouTube video where someone was using a very cool gadget or household appliance that made you wonder what it was and where they got it from? While there’s no Shazam-like service that can simply detect what’s going on in your video (yet) it looks like YouTube is working on the next best thing, according to reports.

Read more: YouTube is going to warn creators about copyright issues before they post a video

YouTube began testing the ability to “analyse” a video for any products mentioned in it, early last year. It would then show an overlay with the option to click through a shopping portal for that product. The company is now expanding that rollout to more users, but with an interesting change.

Instead of the previous test which showed links to products available on shopping platforms that were shown in the video, the new feature that is being tested finds related videos after analysing the video you’re looking at, according to a report by 9to5Google. This possibly means you could quickly identify a smart home gadget in the background of one video in case you were shopping for a similar gadget. However, this time, it will likely appear outside the player, if Google’s description of the feature is any indicator.

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According to the report, it looks like Google will show you a list of products that were used in a video, which will then show along with some “related products” -- these could show in between your ‘Recommended Videos’ section, so you could see it as soon as you scroll down. Google says the feature is being tested with viewers in the US, although that could change over time, as, unlike the previous test that involved shopping, this experiment only involves ‘related videos.’