YouTube is testing a new way to search for videos on desktop with ‘Search Chips’ that allow users to refine results with suggested keywords.
For video creators, this feature could lead to more chances for your content to get discovered.
Search Chips resemble the search suggestions at the bottom of Google SERPs and behave in a similar way.
Users can refine video searches by clicking on a Search Chip to enhance the relevancy of their search results.
For example, a search for “WordPress” could turn into a search for “WordPress ecommerce website tutorial” with the click of a button.
That’s great for channels with videos that rank for long-tail keywords.
For users, this could make it easier to find what they’re looking for. They can start with a general topic and dig deeper with Search Chips.
YouTube Search Chips On Desktop – Experimental Feature
YouTube is currently testing Search Chips as an experimental feature for Premium members.
One of the perks with YouTube Premium is the ability to test new features before they go live for everyone.
Search Chips is the latest experiment and one of the few tests I’ve seen focused on search results.
Previously, YouTube tested voice search on desktop as an experiment for Premium users, which eventually rolled out to all users.
The same may happen to Search Chips if there’s enough positive feedback.
What Do ‘Search Chips’ Look Like?
If you’re a Premium subscriber, you may see the following dialog box next time you visit YouTube on desktop.
Screenshot from YouTube.com, March 2022.Clicking on “Try It” will bring you to a page where you can activate the feature.
YouTube Premium allows testing of one feature at a time, but you can cycle through them as many times as you want.
Screenshot from YouTube.com/new, March 2022.The animated example YouTube is more vibrant than what the feature actually looks like in practice.
Search Chips are really just keywords in bubbles that appear underneath the search bar.
Sticking with the same “WordPress” example, here’s what a YouTube SERP looks like with Search Chips enabled:
Screenshot from YouTube.com, March 2022.From there you can click on a Search Chip to narrow down the results further.
You can only refine the results by one level, however. So you can’t keep clicking on chips to populate further suggestions.
I’ve found Search Chips won’t populate at all if your search isn’t broad enough. If you start by entering “WordPress free website tutorial” in the search box, for example, then YouTube won’t show any chips.
YouTube Search Chips In Testing For a Limited Time
YouTube is testing Search Chips from now until April 14. Perhaps we’ll see the feature roll out more widely in the months to follow.
Another potential use case for Search Chips is keyword research. YouTube doesn’t say what the suggested keywords are based on, but it’s likely they come from related searches.
If that’s the case then this is another set of data you can use to see what people are searching for.
Keywords suggested in Search Chips aren’t always identical to the autocomplete suggestions, so you may find some ideas you haven’t run into yet.
Source: YouTube
Featured Image: Postmodern Studio/Shutterstock