Trial and Error

Google recently introduced a new feature to Google Video that lets college football fans create and upload their football-related videos and antics. The service premiered before the much anticipated Ohio State/University of Michigan game last weekend. I checked out the service quickly for a story that day (Link: http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=11094), but I decide to revisit it this week for the blog.

The videos include musings from fans, footage from the stands, coverage of tailgate parties and other fan-created videos celebrating college football. The videos are neatly arranged and load in a relatively fast fashion.

But here’s my big beef with this service. When I first checked it out on Nov. 17 for the Web story, I was able to access it from both the home page of Google Video and from the direct link at video.google.com/touchdown. But four days later on Nov. 21, when I visit Google Video, I spend several minutes on the home page hunting around for it.

I don’t see the videos under home page categories Popular, Featured or Comedy, nor do I spot them under Featured on AOL, Music Videos or Movie Trailers, nor TV Shows, Sports or Education. I try the various pull down menus too and I can’t find the videos there either.

So how would I find the service if I didn’t have the link? Shouldn’t a site promote a new feature on its home page? Finally, I try a search for “college football,” but it returns stock footage from games or vintage clips.

This is not a problem unique to Google. I have found that many portals and TV network Web sites fail to promote their new features and videos.