Written December 24, 2008 – 9:54 am | by Grant Crowell

Online video views are now surpassing searches performed on the top 5 search engines, according to the most recent two months of stats released by comScore. In October 2008, 12.6 total billion searches were made – as compared to 13.5 billion videos viewed. “Video is now a standard, an expectation.” Says Michael Boland, Senior Analyst for the Kelsey Group, who presented this data at the Search Engine Strategies Chicago conference, while moderating the panel, Act Universal: Using Video in Small Business Marketing.

ComScore also recently released its November 2008 stats – 12.3 total billion searches were made, a 3 percent decline from the previous month of October. (This can be attributed to November having one fewer days in the month.)

“Core Search” engines include searches done on the top 5 (i.e., most trafficked) search engines and their search networks - Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Ask, and AOL .

Improved accessibility to online video results in highest penetration rate ever

Boland also presented comScore’s Metrics which showed that in the month of October, 77% of U.S. Internet audiences are now watching video online.

One of the reasons why video is becoming more and more popular among users is that there are more opportunities for both amateurs and professionals to produce and promote their video content online. Boland mentioned that especially for video content producers and advertisers, the economies for online video initiatives have really improved.

“Traditionally, you have a limited number of options, where there’s this convoluted process of going out and hiring a videographer, writing a script… you end up with a piece of crap video that goes on late night cable… but now you have a number of lower cost opportunities with digital economies of production, digital distribution. Not only is it cheaper but more trackable. Companies are bringing the barriers down.”