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Originally published at Internet.comWhat are viewers looking for in online videos? While viral videos show the audience for humor, shock, and adult content, a new categorization system from video search site ClipBlast offers more surprising answers. "How To" videos, the company is finding, are especially popular.
ClipBlast recently unveiled a new navigation system designed to help people discover videos they'll like. A scrolling bar across the top of the site's homepage shows fresh videos just uploaded to the Web, as found by the site's indexing spiders. Below that is the "category carousel," an alphabetical list and a scroll bar showing categories of video. Roughly 80 main categories are marked with small images.
Most videos are sorted into their categories automatically, using metadata attached to the video. When there's a question about accuracy, a human editor at ClipBlast steps in and does the work.
With its new system in place, ClipBlast is finding that some categories are unexpectedly popular. Viewers have shown a strong interest in "how to" videos, something that corporate video creators should bear in mind when planning a project. Viewers are happy to learn how to do something, as long as the lesson is presented well, even if they never plan on using that knowledge.
One content provider who's benefited from the new categorization system is Marty Schupak, a championship-winning youth sports coach. Over the last year, Schupak put more than 150 promotional clips on YouTube, advertising videos that teach youth coaches how to run practices and drills. ClipBlast search results consistently drive traffic to his YouTube clips.
"Thanks to ClipBlast, more people have been able to find my Sports Tips and Clips," says Schupak. "It's been tremendous. Activity on my website has gone up 35 percent, and that has translated into a 25 percent increase in net sales."
Other popular categories, not surprisingly, include Love & Sex, Celebrity, Music, and Trailers. Topical videos, Gary Baker, ClipBlast founder and CEO, notes, such as videos of the Virginia Tech shootings, are also popular.
Unfortunately, there's currently no way for video creators to use ClipBlast to see what categories or videos are taking off, but Baker says that feature might come in the future.
Author: Troy Dreier
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