Faced with writing a school report on an Australian animal, Tyler Kennedy began where many students begin these days: by searching the Internet. But Tyler did not use Google or Yahoo. He searched for information about the platypus on YouTube.
Similarly, when Tyler gets stuck in one of his favorite games on the Wii, he searches YouTube for tips on how to move forward.
While he favors YouTube for searches, he said he also turned to Google from time to time.
“When they don’t have really good results on YouTube, then I use Google,” said Tyler, who is 9 and lives in Alameda, California.
Tyler’s way of experiencing the Web — primarily through video — may not be mainstream, but his use of YouTube as his favorite search engine underscores a shift that is much broader than the quirky habits of children.
The explosion of video content on YouTube and other sites is quickly transforming online video from a medium strictly for entertainment and news into one that is also a reference tool. As a result, video search on YouTube and other sites is rapidly becoming a new entry point into the Web, one that could rival mainstream search for many types of queries.
“There are an increasing number of people who are doing video searches to supplement and improve what they do in their offline lives,” said Suranga Chandratillake, the chief executive of Blinkx, a video search engine.
With inexpensive cameras flooding the market and a proliferation of Web sites now offering seemingly unlimited numbers of clips, it has never been easier to create and upload video. You can now find an online video on virtually any topic. Web videos teach how to grout a bathtub, offer reviews of the latest touch-screen phones and give you the feel of walking across the Ponte Vecchio in…