10 Best Video Search Engines in 2024
Many video search engines are available online and they make it easy to find anything you want with ease. Some platforms host these videos while others just link to them, but they all make it easy for you to find what you are looking for.
From simple entertainment to education, catching up with the news, shopping, and watching your favorite music artists, video content is more popular than ever on the web.
This post lists the top 10 video search engines on the web and includes their best features to help you make the right choice.
Tips For Using Video Search Engines
Here are some tips to help you make the most of video search engines and their services.
- Use Specific Keywords: Try searching for a video with specific keywords that describe what you are looking for. As an example, if you are looking for a dancing dog, then search for a “dancing dog” and not just search for a “dog” and start scrolling.
- Use Quotation marks for Exact Phrases: Most search engines will treat a phrase in quotation marks as an exact search–that is, they will try to return only results that contain that exact phrase. For example, searching for “green helicopter” will only bring back results that contain both “green” and “helicopter”. Use this when there are too many similar results.
- Utilize Advanced Search Filters: Most of these search engines will offer advanced search filters that let you specify certain search criteria, such as location, video duration, resolution, license, and upload date. Use these filters to narrow down your search.
Best Video Search Engines
Rank | Name | Highlights | Website |
---|---|---|---|
1. | YouTube | Most popular, categories, channels | youtube.com |
2. | Google Videos | Auto-complete, related search, filters | google.com |
3. | TikTok | Social media, user generated videos | tiktok.com |
4. | DailyMotion | 183 languages, 43 localized versions | dailymotion.com |
5. | DuckDuckGo | Privacy-focused, impressive features | duckduckgo.com |
6. | Twitch | Streaming content, gamers | twitch.tv |
7. | Trending & viral videos | facebook.com | |
8. | DTube | Decentralized, no censorship | d.tube |
9. | Bing Videos | Microsoft platform | bing.com/videos |
10. | Interesting discoveries | instagram.com |
1. YouTube
Highlights: Largest, most popular, channels, categories
Website: youtube.com
YouTube is the largest and most popular video search engine on the Internet. It has over 2 billion monthly users and 120+ million daily users for everything from news to dance videos, entertainment, comedy, movies, music videos, and so on.
The homepage presents you with a listing of trending, most watched, and relevant videos to your location or account. Plus, there is also a search button on this bar that when clicked, opens the search entry field where you can write what you are looking for.
Options include searching from all channels or playlists. There is also an option to select upload time between any time, today, this week, month, and year. Finally, you can also search with your voice on mobile devices.
2. Google Videos
Highlights: Auto-complete, related search, versatile filters
Website: google.com/videohp
Google Video Search is part of the Google search engine and automatically returns related video results to every query. However, Google includes a tab for only video results, next to its All, News, and Images tabs.
Clicking on this tab shows you all the videos for your search, and you can then filter the results if you need to. Its search tools include duration, upload time, quality, and source, which include YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Giphy, and Dailymotion.
Other Google Video Search features are the related searches section, which offers suggestions that are closely related to your search term, and the auto-complete function of the search bar that extends your search with more specific terms.
3. TikTok
Highlights: Video social media, short videos, highly popular
Website: tiktok.com
TikTok is a social media platform focused on videos. Users make and submit videos ranging in length from just a few seconds to many minutes about anything.
Given its reported addictive nature and other concerns, many governments and corporations have either banned or censored TikTok. However, if you are looking for original user-generated content that’s purely fun, then TikTok remains a top destination.
TikTok is available as Android and iOS apps and in 40 languages. It offers a search button that returns the most relevant results, as well as the capability to search users’ phone numbers, hashtags, and live content.
4. Dailymotion
Highlights: 183 languages, 43 localized versions
Website: dailymotion.com
Dailymotion is another huge video hosting site and search engine, hundreds of millions of users, and 3+ billion monthly video views.
The platform is one of the first to support HD videos on the web and is available in 43 localized versions across the globe. Dailymotion’s homepage starts with major videos and includes a navigation bar for the Sports, News, Entertainment, and Music categories.
Clicking the search button leads to the results page with different sections including videos, channels, playlists, and topics. You can further filter the video results using sorting, video duration, and upload date.
5. DuckDuckGo
Highlights: Privacy-focused, extensive features
Website: duckduckgo.com
DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that neither tracks you nor your clicks. It simply provides search results without making money from your browsing data.
Like Google, it returns all related search results in its All tab, and you can then click on the Videos tab to see only videos, or on Images or News to see only images and news respectively.
The Video tab on DuckDuckGo offers search filters, such as region, safe search, upload time, video resolution, video duration, and license. You can also customize the platform’s user interface by clicking on Settings.
6. Twitch
Highlights: Streaming content, gamers
Website: twitch.tv
Twitch is the perfect platform to discover live-streaming content of all types, including sports, talk shows, music, and events. But it is especially popular among gamers. The platform allows anyone to stream content to the world and even get paid for it.
The homepage features all categories of streaming content, with live channels, recently released games, recommended channels, and channels for top games like Call of Duty.
You can also click on the search icon to enter a search phrase and Twitch will return relevant results, including different tabs for Channels, Categories, and Videos.
7. Facebook
Highlights: User uploaded, viral videos, trending topics
Website: facebook.com
Facebook equally has a large number of user-uploaded videos that you can search for on the platform. All you have to do is click the search button and enter your search terms.
The standard search results page will include everything, including people, pictures, posts, and videos. Just click on the Videos tab to see only video results.
A downside to Facebook’s video search is that it does not offer filters to help narrow down your search. On the plus side, however, you get to discover many trending videos and even viral ones.
8. DTube
Highlights: Decentralized platform, no censorship
Website: d.tube
DTube is a decentralized platform, which means there is no single control center for its contents. It is part of the Blockchain revolution and pays content creators with its crypto coin.
The platform is also not censored because the video uploaders retain the full rights to their data. However, its search system is very basic and does not include filters, but you can find unique videos on the site, which otherwise, would have been censored on the bigger video sites.
9. Bing Videos
Highlights: Microsoft platform, many features
Website: bing.com/videos
Like Google search, the Bing search engine also offers a general results page for each search term and then includes a Videos tab to show only videos.
Bing also includes filters to narrow down a selection by upload time, HD or not quality, length, and whether it’s a free or paid video.
Another feature of Bing Videos is you can play the videos directly on Bing, except for the paid ones, which open in new browser tabs.
10. Instagram
Highlights: Interesting discoveries
Website: nstagram.com
Instagram is another website with lots of videos posted by its various users. Though the site originally served images, it has grown lots of video content that you can easily search for using phrases, hashtags, and locations.
Simply tap the search bar at the top of the page to get to the Explore page where you then enter your search term to view pictures and videos. With Instagram, however, you lack control over the results because the system uses artificial intelligence to provide what it feels are the best results for you.
The advantage, however, is that once it has an idea of what you like, then you may discover photos and videos that you could never have found on your own.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The following are some frequently asked questions about video search engines.
Can I find music videos on video search engines?
Yes, YouTube is packed with music videos from a wide range of genres.
Can I find user-generated videos on video search engines?
Yes, engines like YouTube and Metacafe are full of mainly user-generated videos.
Is there a search engine for specific video types?
Yes, some sites like Twitch specialize in streaming videos from especially gamers, while Metacafe and TikTok specialize in short videos.
Can I find viral videos on video search engines?
Yes, you can find viral videos on most video search engines, although some platforms like YouTube go the extra mile to show trending videos.
Is there a foreign-language video search engine?
Yes, Dailymotion for instance, is French-based and available in 183 languages.
Conclusion
In rounding up our list of the top 10 video search engines on the web, you have seen that they offer a wide range of content, from user-generated entertainment to viral videos.
This versatility provides something for everyone, so the best platform for you depends on what you are looking for.