Google on Monday officially launched its video search and added playback from directly within the Web browser. Google Video Viewer is a browser plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer designed to play video captures from more than 20 TV stations that are partnered with Google.

The player is based upon the work of the Video LAN open source project. The Video LAN Client is cross-platform supporting Linux, Mac OS X, BSD and BeOS. However, Google Video Viewer only works with Microsoft Windows.

In May, Google seeded its video search lineup with free content from Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, and CNN.

In addition to Google's own content, user-submitted clips are available following the launch of the company's "Video Upload" utility. Google has granted its users control over the distribution rights of their personal video clips.

"After downloading the viewer, users entering keywords into the Google Video search box will see a list of results that look about the same as before – with brief text snippets, still screen captures and so on. But now, videos available for playback will feature a small triangle 'play' icon next to the snippet," Google representatives said.

"If a user clicks on one of these results they will see a page with up to five still screen captures which make it possible for them to play the specific part of the video that's most relevant to their query. Click the 'play' icon and the video jumps into action."

Currently, only free video is available for playback, but Google is expected to offer fee-based programming in the near future. The company is developing its own online payment system to facilitate the purchasing of videos.

The Google Video service is presently only available in the English language. Video playback requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or later or Mozilla Firefox.