Recent research from Forrester suggests that Google’s Universal Search, which blends news stories, Pr releases, maps and video—just about anything except images—into its results pages, is heavily predisposed to turn up video files, especially those from Google-owned YouTube.

In fact, Forrester analysts Nate Elliott suggests that video clips are 53 times more likely to turn up on a first page of organic search results than standard text pages. For that reason, he recommends that marketers make any videos they post easy for Google’s bots to find and index by, for example, putting keywords into video filenames, titles and tags.

Rival Yahoo doesn’t blend video or news with other search results a la Google’s product. But that doesn’t mean marketers can’t serve up sound and motion when users go looking for them on Yahoo.

In March Yahoo launched a new format for clickable ads on search results pages called “Rich Ads in Search”. The new ads, which appear above the search results and not on the right rail as pay-per-click ads do, will let advertisers—mostly brand marketers, at least initially– offer not just text and links but images, logos, videos and other interactive features within the ad box.

The new Rich Ads in Search permit messages that are more compelling to users than the standard 75-character clickthrough search ads, according to Yahoo vice president of search business Tim Mayer.

“The search landscape is changing,” he says. “Search results pages are getting a lot more interactive, and they’re moving away from the ten blue links to a task-completion focus. At Yahoo we feel it’s important not only to move forward with the algorithmic section of the results, but to evolve the ad section to keep pace with that change.”

The rich ads appear in the “onebox” at the top of the results page, and brands that run them will have exclusive right to that position for the keywords they choose; no other ads will appear in the onebox.

Yahoo began testing the ads with a handful of advertisers about nine months ago, displaying them to a restricted group of searchers. Without giving specifics, Mayer says clickthrough and conversion rates on the rich ads were strong enough to start inviting selected brands to deploy the ads for some of their keywords. Pepsi, Pedigree Food for Dogs, eSurance and Staples have all made early use of the rich search ads, which now reach 100% of Yahoo search users.

“Some brands used the ads to promote their Super Bowl ads but have since dropped the format,” Mayer says. “I think it will happen that some brands want to be permanent fixtures in rich ads in search, while others will use the form when they’re launching a new car model, for example, and want to show it off with video when people are searching for it on Yahoo.”

So far a lot of the brands running video in Yahoo rich search ads have been repurposing broadcast commercials or other content. Mayer says that trend may change as the format gains acceptance. In time, video run as part of search ads may come to reflect the real-life events and motives that are leading people to search. Right now, Mayer says, a financial company is featuring a short talk from its CEO on the state of the economy in a rich search ad on Yahoo.

Yahoo is currently selling rich ads in search for a flat monthly fee, but may in time move them to the same auction basis that prices pay-per-click keyword ads, Mayer said.

Analysts are currently split on the ultimate value of the rich ads in search format. Some, such as Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence, value the targeted nature of the ads. Presumably, only those interested in a brand’s message will click on the video or interact with the ad. That means these ads will display to a more highly qualified audience than other rich video ads that simply start running when a user opens a Web page.

But Ryan Gibson, a consultant with the Rimm-Kaufmann Group, criticizes Yahoo for restricting the rich search ads to selected brand keywords rather than opening them up to the non-branded search terms (“printers” rather than “Epson”) that are the most fought over.

Gibson’s advice: Make the rich ads in search available for any keyword over a certain traffic threshold, and structure the pricing in a way that can be linked back to return on investment—“perhaps a distinct premium-per-click that the can opt into, based on participation in the program.”

Recent research from Forrester suggests that Google’s Universal Search, which blends news stories, Pr releases, maps and video—just about anything except images—into its results pages, is heavily predisposed to turn up video files, especially those from Google-owned YouTube.

In fact, Forrester analysts Nate Elliott suggests that video clips are 53 times more likely to turn up on a first page of organic search results than standard text pages. For that reason, he recommends that marketers make any videos they post easy for Google’s bots to find and index by, for example, putting keywords into video filenames, titles and tags.

Rival Yahoo doesn’t blend video or news with other search results a la Google’s product. But that doesn’t mean marketers can’t serve up sound and motion when users go looking for them on Yahoo.

In March Yahoo launched a new format for clickable ads on search results pages called “Rich Ads in Search”. The new ads, which appear above the search results and not on the right rail as pay-per-click ads do, will let advertisers—mostly brand marketers, at least initially– offer not just text and links but images, logos, videos and other interactive features within the ad box.

The new Rich Ads in Search permit messages that are more compelling to users than the standard 75-character clickthrough search ads, according to Yahoo vice president of search business Tim Mayer.

“The search landscape is changing,” he says. “Search results pages are getting a lot more interactive, and they’re moving away from the ten blue links to a task-completion focus. At Yahoo we feel it’s important not only to move forward with the algorithmic section of the results, but to evolve the ad section to keep pace with that change.”

The rich ads appear in the “onebox” at the top of the results page, and brands that run them will have exclusive right to that position for the keywords they choose; no other ads will appear in the onebox.

Yahoo began testing the ads with a handful of advertisers about nine months ago, displaying them to a restricted group of searchers. Without giving specifics, Mayer says clickthrough and conversion rates on the rich ads were strong enough to start inviting selected brands to deploy the ads for some of their keywords. Pepsi, Pedigree Food for Dogs, eSurance and Staples have all made early use of the rich search ads, which now reach 100% of Yahoo search users.

“Some brands used the ads to promote their Super Bowl ads but have since dropped the format,” Mayer says. “I think it will happen that some brands want to be permanent fixtures in rich ads in search, while others will use the form when they’re launching a new car model, for example, and want to show it off with video when people are searching for it on Yahoo.”

So far a lot of the brands running video in Yahoo rich search ads have been repurposing broadcast commercials or other content. Mayer says that trend may change as the format gains acceptance. In time, video run as part of search ads may come to reflect the real-life events and motives that are leading people to search. Right now, Mayer says, a financial company is featuring a short talk from its CEO on the state of the economy in a rich search ad on Yahoo.

Yahoo is currently selling rich ads in search for a flat monthly fee, but may in time move them to the same auction basis that prices pay-per-click keyword ads, Mayer said.

Analysts are currently split on the ultimate value of the rich ads in search format. Some, such as Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence, value the targeted nature of the ads. Presumably, only those interested in a brand’s message will click on the video or interact with the ad. That means these ads will display to a more highly qualified audience than other rich video ads that simply start running when a user opens a Web page.

But Ryan Gibson, a consultant with the Rimm-Kaufmann Group, criticizes Yahoo for restricting the rich search ads to selected brand keywords rather than opening them up to the non-branded search terms (“printers” rather than “Epson”) that are the most fought over.

Gibson’s advice: Make the rich ads in search available for any keyword over a certain traffic threshold, and structure the pricing in a way that can be linked back to return on investment—“perhaps a distinct premium-per-click that the can opt into, based on participation in the program.”