Google Universal Search Gives Big Ups to Maps, Video

Google released its universal search update a few weeks ago, and now Bill Tancer at Hitwise says the upgrade is driving a lot of traffic to Google Maps and YouTube.

Well of course the YouTube bump makes sense. Like I said three weeks ago, you don't have to sell ads in videos, you can make money selling ads around searches for video. As video becomes more popular -- and not just on YouTube, on every video site -- people will search for those videos more often on Google. Even better, for Google, YouTube's rising tide lifts all boats. In this case the boats = other video sites. Monetize those, too. Turn Google Video into a meta search engine for all types of video.

As for the increased traffic to Google Maps, I wonder if that number isn't impacted by all the attention Maps received last week from the street view feature. Lots of media around that one, including my appearance to talk about the feature with Wired's Ryan Singel on G4TV's Attack of the Show.