How to Search for Videos

In this topic you will learn how to search for videos.

The Videos page provides a Search... field that can be used to search videos in an account.

Terminology

In this section, the term exact means that the search string is enclosed in quotation marks. For example:

Exact Search Non-Exact Search
"cr550 bike" cr550 bike

Note that "exact" means that all terms inside the quotation marks must be matched, but they may not match exactly. For example, a search on "running water" could return a video that has the phrase water runs downhill in the title or description.

To search the videos in your account, enter a search term in the Search... field.

To search for multiple video IDs, use the following syntax: id:xxx id:xxx id:xxx. For example, id:5985323381001 id:5715142164001.

The following video fields will be searched:

  • Video ID
  • Name
  • Short description
  • Tags

Query support for video fields differ. Some fields support partial-word searches and stemming searches, and some do not.

Search field  Supports Does Not Support Examples
Name and descriptions exact matches for one or more whole words; stemming support no partial-word support
  • name:"great blue" will match "Great Blue Heron"
  • name:"great blu" will not match "Great Blue Heron"
  • name:great blu will match "Great Blue Heron"
Video ID exact matches only no partial-word or stemming support 5591838791001 will match video with id 5591838791001 5591838791 will not match that video
Tags matches only for whole words no partial-word or stemming support tags:publ will not match videos with tag "public"

What is stemming?

Video fields that support stemming return words that have the stem of the search word in common. In addition, stemming supports entering whole words only, not partial words:

  • Example 1: Searching on running will return results containing: running, run, runs
  • Example 2: Searching on vid will not return results containing: video

General rules

  • For an exact match, enclose strings in quotes
  • By default, searching assumes an OR logical operator between words
  • Search is case-insensitive

Examples

Search Term Returns
financial planning all videos that contain financial OR planning
"financial planning" all videos that contain financial AND planning. Note that the quotation marks ensure that matching videos will have all the terms, but possible not the exact terms - for example, the search terms here might also return videos with finance and plan in the title or description
walk all videos that contain walk, walks, or walking

Ignored words

Certain words are ignored in search strings because they are so common that they are likely to return many results unrelated to what you are actually searching for. Below is a list of words that are ignored by search.

a an and
are as at
be but by
for if in
into is it
no not of
on or such
that the their
then there these
they this to
was will with