Comscore have released some interesting stats regarding the different types of universal results in the Google search results page (SERP).

source: http://www.comscore.com

James Lamberti draws the conclusion that the popularity of video is mostly driven by a combination of consumers and Google itself. However I'd disagree, and argue that Google is not responsible at all, simply Google is responding to what the consumer market is naturally demanding.

Compare it with Cisco Systems, Global IP Traffic Forecast and Methodology; Mobility segment (0.1% of traffic in 2007 which shows some very interesting numbers regarding the way Consumer web traffic will surpass Business web traffic this year.

source: Global IP Traffic Forecast and Methodology; Mobility segment (0.1% of traffic in 2007

It would make sense that this would lead to a greatly increased volume in entertainment traffic as the nature of web usage changes, and thus an increasing popularity of video and YouTube in universal search results. Looking at the popularity of YouTube beyond Google this also matches our research into social bookmarking service DIGG.com which showed that YouTube was by far the website that reached the homepage of DIGG most frequently.

Personally, considering that I have been contemplating getting rid of our television set at home recently, I definitely think this will be an ongoing trend, and would not be surprised to see YouTube taking an even more prominent place on Google in the future.