YouTube is trying to make it much easier for users to find the videos they’re looking for with “smart tags” that will give topic results to searches. The experimenting with smart tags and topic results will begin tomorrow at an undisclosed time in their ‘ideas’ lab TestTube.

      When the testing goes live, users will see “topics” above videos they find through search results or that are shared among friends. These “topics” act somewhat like tags but take it to a whole other level. Topics are determined by a sophisticated analysis that considers comments, viewing patterns and other factors.

      “People don’t know what to search for because they don’t know what’s there,” said YouTube staff engineer Palash Nandy. As we stand, YouTube cannot scan for the content of videos. So, it cannot determine which videos are funny if a user were to search for ‘funny videos’. Sarcastic comments are taken for face value and give erroneous search results. ‘Topics’ is YouTube’s proposed solution.

      “We’re really creating a language of discovery,” Nandy said. If users are interested in testing it for themselves, they must register on YouTube’s TestTube page. When will ‘topics’ be standard on YouTube? Nothing is known.

      Internet advertisers will certainly keep a close eye on smart tags and ‘topics’ developments. It could prove extremely valuable in the same vein as Google AdWords.

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