The function arrives inside TrueView ads, the clips before the main video, introduced in 2010, that viewers can skip (letting advertisers off the hook for payment), ecommercefacts.com reports. Users search, for example, a quiche recipe, and find a how-to video.
Additionally, an ad for a quiche pan plays. A few seconds into the ad, a small panel appears inviting users to shop. Once it is clicked, a sidebar of product images with prices drops down, which viewers can scroll through, and there is a link to a website to buy that pan. It works on both desktop and mobile.
Google is stressing that this does not allow for purchasing directly within YouTube. Instead, like its imminent “Buy” button, Google sends users outbound to the retailers’ websites. Rather than the merchant, Google is the connective tissue. Google has recently been bounding into other industries, like travel and insurance, by placing services directly inside search.
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