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November 19, 2009

YouTube Launches Automatic Captions; Great for Accessibility and Search

YouTube is introducing machine-generated automatic captioning to YouTube. The captions can also be translated. This obviously has incredible implications for the hearing-impaired and language translation. But it also has great implications for search.

Automatic captions will be generated using Google's automated speech recognition (ASR) technology and the same voice recognition algorithms used in Google Voice.

Additionally, auto-timing is being introduced. If you provide all the words in the video, Google will automatically time the captioning for you.

Of course, having what essentially amounts to transcripts for online video means that the text can be crawled and indexed and then yes - SEARCHED. Bring on the keyword research and seo scriptwriting for online videos!

Google put together a video on how to access the automatic captioning and auto-timing features:

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

November 16, 2009

Fliqz Launches Online Video SEO Tool

Video solution provider Fliqz has announced the launch of a new online video search engine optimization (SEO) tool. The tool is dubbed SearchSuccess and Fliqz says that companies who tested the product are experiencing early success.

A whopping two-thirds of the videos submitted by these early customers have reached first page Google rankings. 25% have seen the number one position.

"SearchSuccess addresses many of the common flaws in existing Video SEO strategies," said Benjamin Wayne, CEO of Fliqz. "Many publishers are mistakenly under the impression that submitting videos to YouTube will drive traffic back to their site, or are working with video platform providers whose search engine submission techniques are either ineffective or drive traffic to the platform provider rather than the publisher. SearchSuccess is the first product to ensure search ranking while guaranteeing traffic is directed to the publisher's site."

One customer experiencing the early success is Design World Online, who has produced videos for topics such as 3D CAD models and OEM machine building. They've submitted 1,000 videos and 700 of them are already ranked on the first page of results.

"One of the most critical parts of our business, aside from generating quality content for our users, is helping engineers find and engage in our community and resources," said Marshall Matheson, vice president of New Media for Design World Online. "Using Fliqz to optimize our videos has directly impacted our bottom line as not only has it resulted in a significant uptick in traffic but increased visitor engagement and conversion rates."

SearchSuccess is available as an add-on to Fliqz's Gold Edition video solution.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

October 27, 2009

Similar Image Search Engine GazoPa Opens to Public Beta Testing

GazoPa, a similar image search engine developed by Hitachi America, is now open for public beta testing. You don't need a login. Simply go to GazoPa.com and check it out.

What you do is either upload an image, paste the URL to an image, type in a keyword - or even draw an image directly on the site. GazoPa will then try to find images similar to what you've provided.

Drawing an image was tempting, so I digitally sketched up a quick pumpkin, but it didn't exactly recognize the image. Hey, it's still in beta :)

Typing in pumpkin for a keyword search had me wondering if they had indexed any pumpkin images at all yet.

Next, I tried using a URL for a pumpkin photo from Flickr. Note that you need the actual URL of the image, not the URL for the page for the image on Flickr or whatever site you're using.

The results showed images with the similar color of the pumpkin, but not so many actual pumpkins.

To be thorough, I conducted other searches such as "pie," "cat," and "coffee," but the results were similar. There were at least felines included in the results for "cat," but I would expect more from an image search.

GazoPa seems to have similar color down, but needs to keep working on the Holy Grail of similar image subject. It's smart that they're opening it to a login-free public beta test. Those really interested in the advancement of image search will want to assist in helping GazoPa further innovate its offering.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2009

More Rumors: Google, Facebook to Launch Online Music Initiatives

The rumor mill just keeps flying this hump day. First, TechCrunch is dishing on a new initiative by Google to make music easier to search and sample. The deal will involve services such as MySpace, iLike and LaLa, and is rumored to be announced next Wednesday at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Brad Stone at the New York Times has the scoop on a new music micropayments service slated to be launched by Facebook. Currently, you can spend 10 cents to send cute little goodies in the form of images to your Facebook friends. Soon, you'll be able to send songs that your friends can listen to online. Greeting cards and videos will also be getting the micropayments treatment.

Neither of these stories is officially confirmed. "No comment" is the phrase of the day!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 15, 2009

Google Supports Facebook Share and Yahoo! SearchMonkey RDFa for Videos

It's easy to think of online video as an social media method, but they're increasingly having search value. After all, most videos don't go viral, but they are still useful for the niches that you've created them for. That's where search comes into play.

Google is offering up help for getting your videos better indexed. The Google Webmaster Central has announced support for Facebook Share and Yahoo! SearchMonkey RDFa for video indexing. These formats offer up information about videos, such as title and description, in the HTML for a video page.

Be sure that your rich snippets are indeed included in the HTML and not executed by JavaScript or Flash in order to be indexed.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 28, 2009

Bing Offers Up Image Optimization Tips

Over on the Bing blog, Todd Schwartz is offering up some tips on optimizing your photos and graphics for image search. Schwartz says that Bing's top image developer recommends the following:

Name image files appropriately - For improved relevance, make sure that the file name describes the image appropriately.
Alternative image text (alt text) matters - For increased optimization, make sure photos are properly described with alternative text tags, and ensure that test within any images is also
Watch frame breaking - Sites that attempt to break frames make it more difficult for the image to display correctly within search. Make sure you're testing your site against the search engines.

Wondering how important image search is? Schwartz addressed that very question as a panelist at the Image Search session at SES San Jose a few weeks back. He shared image search data from comScore for June 2009. Over 60 million searches produced more than 1 billion image searches. So yeah, I'd say that image search is pretty darn important.

What say you? Leave your thoughts on image search in the comments below.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

August 5, 2009

Flickr Updates Design of Search Results

Yahoo! owned Flickr has given a makeover to its search results page. Now, instead of scrolling through a single stream of images, you see a grid.

You can filter by size by checking your selection at the top right of the results. Also, mouseover a single result and look for an "i" in the lower right corner. Click on it for more information about the image.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 1, 2009

BrightRoll Unveils Performance Pricing for Online Video Advertising

BrightRoll is launching Performance Pricing models for online video advertisements. They are:

Cost Per Engagement (CPE): cost per each user-initiated video engagement or start
Cost Per Completed Video (CPV): cost based on successful user-initiated video completion
Cost Per Click (CPC): cost per click on video advertisement

"Requests from advertisers seeking a broader portfolio of pricing options to better align with their plan objectives led us to release this pricing model innovation," said Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll's co-founder and CEO. "Performance Pricing demonstrates that there is no one right way to buy online video advertising. By letting customers pay on the metrics that most benefit their individual campaigns, we're continuing to remove inefficiencies in the video inventory buying process."

What do you think of BrightRoll's Performance Pricing? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 25, 2009

Video Search Site Truveo Relaunches: How to Leverage Your Brand

Truveo, the video search site acquired by AOL a few years back, has relaunched. Before we get into the details, let's be clear: Truveo is not a YouTube wannabe. Their focus is purely on indexing video around the web.

So, now that we have that settled, let's take a look at what's changed and then how you can incorporate this fast-growing site into your online marketing and PR efforts.

First up, here's the before and after:

Before

After

As you can see, they've made the focus on search quite obvious.

The results page is laid out in three columns. On the left hand side is a list of sites where results have been indexed. In the middle are the video results, with tabs to sort by popularity and other factors. There are suggestions for search refinement where applicable. On the right is a display ad box with a focus on a particular channel underneath.

But looking at the results, where is the opportunity for search marketers? There's the display ad box, but no sponsored listings.

Leveraging Truveo will instead involve public relations and viral marketing. Since many of the sites that Truveo indexes are news sites, earned media is key. Additionally, Truveo tracks popular videos shared via Twitter, so word of mouth and viral social media marketing can help with getting visibility on Truveo as well.

The nice thing about those strategies is that the ultimate visibility of successful marketing and PR campaigns will be widespread. Generally, you'll see a lift in other channels too, if you can manage to get a big media site to cover you. Think of the links - that will be natural! - and the effect they'll have on organic results!

But why would you focus such intent efforts on Truveo. You've never even heard of Truveo. Well, you, my friend are getting closer to being alone in that sentiment as the months roll by.

May was a huge month for Truveo, according to President Pete Kocks. He's hoping that the new site reflects the video search focus while resonating with internet users worldwide.

"With the launch of the new Truveo.com, we are showcasing the breadth of content discoverable in our search engine," said Pete Kocks, President of Truveo and Vice President of AOL. "With thousands of channels and TV shows in our index, Truveo has long been recognized as a leader in video search technology, and today we are building on that reputation with an improved experience that makes discovering and sharing video content even easier and more personalized."

That video content is highly popular in international locations. Because certain locales in Europe, the Middle East and South America have access to better bandwidth and because of the extent of Truveo's video indexing, the site is more easily consumed internationally.

As a result, it comes as no surprise that the relaunch comes with the announcement of two partners: Univision and Tiscali Italia. Both will leverage Truveo's API to deliver video search on their sites.

Speaking of the API, it fuels the video search on all of AOL's sites. Considering the extent to which Truveo indexes video content, third party developers would be wise to incorporate the API to provide a nice value add to any site.

Truveo also has an iPhone app as well as a site optimized for mobile web surfers. They're certainly on the ball and their increasing traffic is showing that they're offering something that internet users really want: comprehensive video search.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 4, 2009

Hulu Cuts Deal with Disney

Online video site Hulu launched last year as a partnership between NBC Universal and Fox. Unlike other online video sites, Hulu isn't about video sharing - it's about internet television.

Now, Disney is getting in on the deal. Disney owns ABC, so this will have three of the top four broadcast networks participating in Hulu. CBS is the outstanding one, and while you can search for shows like CSI, ultimately you'll be taken to the limited CBS site.

Last month, YouTube announced a deal with CBS, but so far the offerings are pretty paltry.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2009

Veoh Allows Video Sharing Within Groups

Online video site Veoh is now offering groups. Many social sites offer groups. LinkedIn and Facebook are two social networks that have very popular and successful group features.

Groups are a great way of finding other users on the same network with similar interests, but they're also great for sharing. So much of the web, from search to social media to shopping, is about discovery, and groups are an awesome tool for finding new things - and sharing things for others to discover.

What do you think about Veoh's new groups? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 5, 2009

Veoh Launches New Version of Site

Veoh has relaunched its site, with a slick look and tons of new features to boot. I must say I really like the look and feel - much better than YouTube. What YouTube has is content due to its large amounts of traffic. If/once people knew about Veoh, they could be a real competitor. But that's a long way off, if it's going to happen, simply because of the mammoth size of YouTube's reputation.

In the meantime, here's what you can expect with the update:

Easier-to-Use Navigation: Major content categories including Movies, TV Shows, Videos, and Indies also give you quick access to sub-categories like Comedy, Anime, SciFi & Fantasy, and more.
‘Browse While Watch’: Easily browse for other videos while you have a video playing.
New Video Players: There are several new players on the site. The regular player enables you to browse while watching videos, the ‘Large’ player expands to ‘theater mode’ for viewing, and of course there’s still the full screen view.
Save Your Interests: Save shows, collections of videos, categories, and search queries for quick access to the content you want to see. You can also add publishers or users to your interest list. Sign up for a weekly email digest to find out when new videos have been added to your interests.
Expanded Recommendations: We’ve made changes that improved the relevancy of our recommendations for every video. Access the improved recommendations right below each player.
Embed a Frame of Videos: Embed multiple videos from any category or search result in your blog or website so users can click through to watch any of the videos on Veoh.com. In the near future we will enable video playback from the page.
Veoh for iPhone: The most popular videos hosted on Veoh.com are now accessible on the iPhone and iTouch - simply type ‘Veoh.com’ into the iPhone’s Safari browser and start watching!
Share Videos: Send videos to friends and automatically posting them to FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, and other sites.
New Veoh Web Player for Mac: A new version of the Web Player for Macs is now available for Intel-based systems. It is supported on Firefox 3 and Safari 3.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 3, 2009

Veoh Launches iPhone-Friendly Site

Online video search site Veoh has launched an iPhone/iPod Touch-friendly site. The new offering is a response to requests from users in their forums.

Simply browse to Veoh.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch and it will bring up the optimized site. The site has a nice, slick look. Check it out:

Veoh says the site works best with the latest software update for the iPhone/iPod Touch, which is version 2.2. It has improvements for the Safari browser included on the devices, which, of course, are needed to browse to the site.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 23, 2009

CNN.com Testing Longer In-Stream Video Ads

Ken Liebeskind over at Clickz.com is reporting that CNN.com is testing longer in-stream video ads. On inauguration day, a 60 second ad for Starbucks appeared in a video featuring President Obama's speech.

It should be interesting to see the results of the test, especially for a news organization. The inauguration wasn't exclusive to CNN. About the only thing I'll wait for is an in-stream ad while I'm watching a TV show online. And that usually only happens on the rare occasion when I'm trying to record too many shows at the same time on my DVR, which can only handle two tuners at a given time.

But how should the results be interpreted? It's hard to imagine that a longer ad would increase conversions, but many advertisers might use in-stream ads as branding anyway, especially since that's what television advertising (the "other" video advertising) is primarily used for.

CNN is in prime place to conduct this testing. Last spring, they led the field in news video searches, beating Google (and YouTube), MSNBC, Yahoo and MSN.com.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 22, 2009

Veoh Launches Slick Video Search Browser Plug-In for Firefox and Internet Explorer

Online video site Veoh has launched a nifty new video search browser plugin. The plugin is called the Veoh Video Compass and is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Here's how it works:

Once the plugin is installed, conduct a search. You can use Google, Yahoo, MSN Live and Live Search, Ask.com, AOL, Wikipedia and YouTube (pretty sneaky way to try and steal a little market share!).

The plugin will also work with searches on Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart and eBay. This is an awesome way to find a video review of a product you're considering. (And as you'll see in a minute, you never browse away from the original page.)

After your results come up, click on the Veoh button that's newly installed in your toolbar area. (Sometimes it's blue, sometimes it's grey.)

The Veoh Video Compass will load and show you videos related to your search. You'll also notice a horizontal bar of suggestions related to your search. Click the button in the toolbar area to hide the compass.

You can scroll for more videos by clicking the arrow on the left.

Once you've selected a video to watch, the video is pulled off, but a dark yet transparent background shows you haven't navigated away from the search page.

What do you think of the plugin? Let us know in the comments.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 21, 2009

Delve Networks Releases Impressive Obama Inauguration Speech Video Search

Delve Networks has released an awesome tool that lets you search Obama's inauguration speech video. When you type in a keyword, the parts of the timeline where the keyword was mentioned are highlighted. Here's a visual:

Next, when you put your mouse over one of the highlighted areas, a bubble appears over the timeline and allows you to see other relevant keywords:

Here, try for yourself:

via Mashable

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 21, 2008

SEW Experts: Searching for Something to Watch

TV and search are converging. Finding something good to watch could soon be more like online search, and less like browsing through a cable channel guide. In today's vertical search column, "Searching for Something to Watch," local search expert Michael Boland looks at the changing face of television and online video.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 10, 2008

AT&T Launches Online Video Search Site, VideoCrawler.com

AT&T is getting into the online video search game. They've launched VideoCrawler.com, which indexes videos from thousands of video sites. Users can organize videos into collections, which can be shared through social networking widgets.

"We want to do everything possible to connect customers to the content they want, and today more than ever, what they want online is social media," said Sean O'Leary, vice president, AT&T Business Development. "With thousands of popular video Web sites, it's become more and more challenging to find, sort and manage all of the best clips that are out there. That's exactly what we're working to solve with VideoCrawler by allowing users to search from an index of the most popular media sources from across the Web."

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008

SEW Experts: Video Search: Can You Live Without It?

With YouTube climbing into the second position in terms of search engines, you can't avoid videos these days. What is your company doing to stay on top of the video market? In today's enterprise search marketing column, "Video Search: Can You Live Without It?," Aaron Shear runs down some of your options.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 26, 2008

SEW Experts: The Universal Mastery of Video Content

Video listings cause us to reexamine the way we've traditionally viewed search engines, and this is simply part of the natural progression. After all, it wasn't too long ago when universal search rocked the world of SEO or social media changed how we use the Web. In today's SEM agency issues column, "The Universal Mastery of Video Content," William Flaiz walks you through the proper way to optimize video content for universal search.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 11, 2008

Searching Rich Media at TechCrunch50

Video search has been a key topic at the TechCrunch50 show in San Francisco. Lots of newly launched companies presented (kind of like DEMO minus the payola). In a “rich media” grouping of companies, the proverbial challenge of making images and video searchable kept coming up.

Presenting companies were • VideoSurf: video search • GazoPa: image search • Fotonauts: image search • Bojam: online music collaboration (like garage band in the cloud)

On the panel of judges was Bradley Horowitz who was a key part of Yahoo's acquisition of Flickr back in 2005. Now he in charge of Google Gadgets and recently oversaw the integration of facial recognition software in Picassa.

“For a number of years I worked at MIT on image recognition technology and the first time I saw Flickr, I wanted to rip up my diploma,” he said from the stage. “It turns out humans are very good at this. You don't need a hyper-technical solution. It can sometimes be the activity around the video, not the content in the video that defines relevance.

This point underscores many of the companies walking different lines between algorithmic solutions and user interaction/tagging in order to solve this longstanding indexing issue.

For the sake brevity, I'll just talk about the best one I saw -- San Mateo, Calif based video search engine VideoSurf. CEO Lior Delgo agrees that users should be brought into the mix but asserts that relying on this alone is flawed.

The company still got Horowitz' vote for its underlying technology, which includes a great deal of intellectual property around visual recognition. This is paired with some social features that together make it a viable choice for video search over and above existing engines like Truveo and Blinkx.

The technology essentially goes beyond the voice recognition, meta data, and surrounding content that many existing sites rely on, and instead tags each frame with more granular information. This includes character names in popular shows and other things that are more contextually relevant and likely as search terms. Relevancy is weighed on frequency of these keywords, click throughs and a few other factors.

This could also be the right time for this technology, given the expanding corpus of video being brought online. This isn't just the long tail YouTube ranks but head content that will get more search queries such as network shows on sites like Hulu. Lots more to the nuts and bolts, and it's clear video search will continue to be a tough nut to crack. But this will be one to watch.

I hope to dive deeper in a column later this month on this and the many other search related companies here -- including a social network for bird watchers (seriously).

Posted by Mike Boland at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 30, 2008

SEW Experts: Visually Impaired Search

Like search ads, PageRank, and blended search, Google's newly launched VisualRank image search technology has the potential to change the way SEO is done. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Visually Impaired Search," Kevin Ryan explains that while the game hasn't changed yet, it will very soon.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

April 24, 2008

We Still Don't Rely on Video Search

While video content continues to skyrocket, people still don't rely on video search. Over half of people, in a recent ClipBlast! survey, said they find videos through their own exploration (53%) or recommendations from others (52%).

However, a sizeable amount (40%) searched for specific videos. What's surprising are the differences based on sex, as 45% of males searched while 35% of females did so.

There was a racial divide reported too: nearly 60% of non-Whites and 35% of Whites reported search activity. It's hard to say why there's such a spread, even accounting for survey size.

Bucking the tide, the youngest adults didn't search videos the most. Some 66% of 25-34 year-olds searched more, as compared with 48% for 18-24; 39% for 35-44; and 28% for 45-54 year-olds.

Other forms of video findability were lower, including 18% following online recommendations from people they didn't know; 10% via unsolicited email; and 9% via email or RSS feeds.

For now, browsing and sharing are still more important than searching videos. As new and better approaches emerge, perhaps these behaviors will shift.

Survey Details: Synovate conducted this research for ClipBlast! between March 3-5, and reached 1,000 adults through their national online panel.

Posted by at 3:30 PM | Permalink

March 14, 2008

SEW Experts: Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market

Last month, we looked at the opportunity for SMBs to use universal search to their advantage by producing and distributing online video. But what is the size of this local video market? In today's Vertical Search column, "Universal Pictures Part II: Sizing up the Local Video Market," local search expert Michael Boland crunches the numbers to define how much of the overall video ad market is also local.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

February 15, 2008

SEW Experts: Universal Pictures: Optimizing Video for Search

We hear a lot about universal search and how it will keep SEO professionals on their toes with constantly evolving ranking algorithms. So how can local online advertisers take advantage of universal search? In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Universal Pictures: Optimizing Video for Search," local search expert Michael Boland explains that creating optimized online video is a great opportunity for local marketers that are on top of their SEO game.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

January 30, 2008

Where's The Online TV Search?

As consumers, we should be thrilled the TV networks have started delivering nice, deep inventories of video clips and longer-form videos online. That's great until you want to explore the current and archived stuff on each domain.

Maybe I should cut some slack to our beloved cable and broadcast networks, who are used to having audiences find their fare through on-air guides and remote controls. After all, TV audiences don't conduct free-form searches to find shows. But I don't think any video providers deserve this break.

So where's the online TV search? Last week, I asked many Future TV Show 2008 attendees about findability matters.

Their responses were very interesting, at least to me. While I won't name names, I heard several executives flatly say their site searching and browsing capabilities were terrible. The rest I would classify as apathetic, which probably comes from years of limited options and lack of control.

Yet these TV networks are not different online, and sound like other web publishers these days. They are paying attention to acquiring and keeping visitors on their domains.

At the NYC show, I heard many familiar questions: How do I get people to my site? How can I get more video streams and page views? How can I really make money online? How do I measure our success?

We're all learning that online video isn't exactly the same animal as its on-air cousin. There are differences in terms of consumption patterns, for starters. The destinations that succeed will learn how to engage and optimize their new online audiences through effective video search, discovery and sharing mechanisms.

Posted by at 2:10 AM | Permalink

January 10, 2008

YouKu.com: Online Video-Sharing Strong in China

As reported yesterday, in Pew Survey Finds Increased Use Of Video-Sharing, Sites, there has been a 45% year-to-year growth in the United States for the number of users visiting video-sharing sites. Similar strong growth is being experienced in China.

Youku.com, the leading online video sharing website in China reports strong growth in video-sharing and viewing in China. This site has seen a 20-fold increase in its daily video views and daily unique visitors since its formal launch in December 2006. This includes an increase of 30 million daily video views since October 2007 alone with December stats showing 12 million daily unique visitors to the site. Today, the drivers for growth of online video-sharing in China are similar to those in the United States: interest in finding timely event coverage and the sharing of user-generated content.

According to Victor Koo, Founder and CEO of Youku.com. ". . . online video has quickly become a mainstream application for users in China, just as it has in the U.S."

It will be interesting to check back in a year to see how the US vs. China numbers compare. Will the meteoric growth continue for online video-sharing? I would not bet against it.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 11:46 AM | Permalink

December 14, 2007

Still Tough To Find Videos!

Despite all the search options available, only 33% of consumers find videos to watch through search engines. In addition, 34% of consumers are frustrated when trying to discover videos, and some 62% say it takes them at least a few minutes or more to find videos that interest them.

ChoiceStream recently announced these video search and related consumption findings in their 2007 Survey of Viewer Trends.

When consumers don't use search, they are discovering videos primarily by browsing sites (56%) and by relying on friends/family recommendations (32%), web site recommendations (20%), magazine/newspaper reviews (10%), or other sources (11%).

At first, I thought this might be due to difficulties when searching user-generated videos. After all, it can be difficult to cull through those results. Of the 824 respondents, however, 39% watched user-generated videos while 65% consumed professionally-produced TV programming.

Sounds like a real opportunity to me, and some search engine will ultimately help consumers find what they need -- at least more than one-third of them.

Posted by at 10:47 PM | Permalink

November 20, 2007

Discover Your Video Search

At the recent NewTeeVee conference, a panel comprised of several Video Search providers agreed that indexing and searching through millions of online videos isn't the real challenge facing them. According to Mary Hodder, Chairman of Dabble, “recommendation and discovery is 80% of the problem.”

No one is denying the video explosion and fragmentation underway. In October 2006, there were approximately 100 million video viewings online, with over half seen through YouTube. Today, by contrast, about a quarter of all videos are viewed on YouTube, and online consumption has grown to 300 million total views monthly.

In response, Dabble and its competitors are adapting their approaches to content management. How the results are organized, clustered and presented is important. Tim Tuttle, who serves as the CEO of Truveo (owned by AOL), explained that, “we want to make it possible for you to find video every time you want it...[and] it's hard to solve this problem.” According to Alex Vikati, president of castTV, “the lines between search, discovery and browse are a little fuzzy.”

Tuttle says that a focused approach is also important, and Truveo “goes to all [key] places, including media companies and major content producers.” Vikati feels that, “it's not just size, but comprehensiveness” that matters. He believes that premium content is important, but classifying spam and other poor quality results should be addressed first. Bearing in mind how many videos are ephemeral, there has been significant progress made by providers in de-duping and updating search results.

Additionally, search vendors are working with new outputs from video sharing and social environments. They have taken advantage of user metadata, like commentary, surrounding the videos. While I do think the answer lies somewhere in the social arena, text surrounding the videos seems a bit askew – comments may not actually be very insightful or even related to the video subjects.

A better approach to discovery? It's telling that when NewTeeVee attendees were asked to vote on the best Video Search provider, they crowned StumbleUpon as the winner! Founder Garrett Camp doesn't focus exclusively on video but rather anything interesting on the web. His business helps people share what's intriguing to them. Heresy? Perhaps. But clearly the answer isn't about old-school search.

Posted by at 5:22 PM | Permalink

October 5, 2007

SEW Experts: Is Optimization Key to Local Video Ads?

Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) providers have the customers and sales infrastructure to succeed at selling local video ads. But so far, they're overlooking the search optimization component. In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Is Optimization Key to Local Video Ads?," video search expert Grant Crowell explains why a video search optimization program could be just what IYPs need.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 14, 2007

Affordable video production for search marketers – interview with TurnHere

In this recent interview conducted with online video solutions provider TurnHere, Founder and CEO Bradley Inman elaborates on project management aspects of preparing online video content for search engine distribution.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 7, 2007

SEW Experts: Will Search Marketers Change Their Spots?

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Will Search Marketers Change Their Spots?," Grant Crowell shows you some ways to promote video creation services, and stand out from the pack.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

August 14, 2007

ClipBlast! to Automatically Index Metacafe Content

ClipBlast! through partnership with Metacafe will automatically index new video posted to Metacafe. ClipBlast!'s automatic indexing capability will provide viewers a way to view video of interest on Metacafe quickly and easily. This will expand the viewership for videographers using Metacafe. Search marketers tasked with promoting video content will find that content agreements such as this one will automatically add reach for their videos.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 2:00 PM | Permalink

July 26, 2007

Internet TV Startup Veoh Networks Names ex-Yahoo Mitgang as CEO

Veoh Networks, an Internet TV startup that launched in February, has named former Yahoo SVP Steve Mitgang as CEO. He replaces founding CEO Dmitry Shapiro, who will assume the role of "chief innovation officer," with an active role in the business.

Mitgang joins other ex-Yahoos at Veoh: Ted Meisel, former president of Overture and Yahoo Search Marketing, is Veoh Networks' chairman; and Josh Metzger, former SVP of business affairs at Overture, is Veoh's SVP of corporate development. Veoh has also named former VP of interactive at Sirius Satellite Radio Jennifer Betka as SVP of marketing.

Veoh reported 14.3 million unique users in June, more than triple the 4.4 million it had in February. Its VeohTV product, currently in beta, "acts as a specialized video browser and DVR (digital video recorder) for discovering, viewing and managing online video." It includes a personalized recommendation engine to help users discover new online video

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:52 PM | Permalink

July 18, 2007

Blinkx to Include Content from Pyro.TV

Over the past few months the video search marketplace has resembled a homesteading land rush, as video search players strike deal after deal with content sources and aggregators. Today the rush continues. blinkx has announced a partnership with Vibe Solutions Group that will add Pyro.TV content, to its searchable index. With this agreement, blinkx users will be able to search for and have access to thousands of video channels on Pyro.TV, ranging from mainstream broadcast programming to niche channels.

Pyro.TV enables publishers to extend their reach to online audiences. For consumers, Pyro.TV provides an easy-to-use, customizable Internet TV service that allows consumers to aggregate and share their favorite video channels. With over 12 million hours of video and audio content already indexed, blinkx will offer Pyro.TV users additional content options.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:56 AM | Permalink

July 13, 2007

SEW Experts: Call for Production Value Standards in Search Marketing Videos

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Call for Production Value Standards in Search Marketing Videos," Grant Crowell conducts a survey of the top-20 videos on YouTube and comes to the conclusion that our industry needs the same professional standards for search marketing videos as we hold for our Web sites.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

July 10, 2007

Quantcast Offers Free Video and Widget Audience Measurement Services

As reported yesterday in Clickz, Quantcast has added online video and widget audience measurement tools. The service enables publishers to measure the usage of videos and widgets on their Web sites. These free tools will report stats on all Flash-based media. This includes videos and online games as well as Web-based and downloaded desktop widgets.

The beta version of Quantcast's video and widget measurement service reports on reach, plays, category and amount consumed. It is expected that the complete offering will include measurements of frequency and distribution, as well as demographics and lifestyle assessments based on Quantcast's Mass Inference algorithm.

MetaCafe, Mochi Media, PictureTrail, RockYou and Slide are among the early beta program participants working with Quantcast's enhanced measurement capabilities. With the rapid growth of video and the introduction of universal search, site owners are expected to need and demand more robust audience measurements that will allow them to justify expenditures for these new media and advertising that will be linked to them.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 1:21 PM | Permalink

June 29, 2007

SEW Experts: Video Search Optimization Tech Tips – Knowing the 4 P's

In today's Vertical Challenge column, "Video Search Optimization Tech Tips – Knowing the 4 P's," Grant Crowell explains the technical aspects of video optimization and viral linking.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:01 AM | Permalink

June 28, 2007

MySpaceTV – Look Who's Chasing YouTube

Today MySpace re-launched its video sharing site, renaming it MySpaceTV. The New York Times reports that this is a serious attempt by News Corp, the owner of MySpace, to challenge YouTube. Users of the new service do not have to be signed in as members of the MySpace community to share their videos. This feature should in fact attract new users to MySpace and expand its reach for quality video content and viewers

The site will emphasize professionally done videos selected by the MySpace editors. In a move toward showing more professional content, last week MySpace became the exclusive outlet for Sony's “Minisodes.” Sponsored by Honda, these are five-minute clips are from 15 vintage sitcoms including “Diff'rent Strokes” and “Silver Spoons.” This type offering will surely expand as more deals are worked out for content from sources such as News Corp owned Fox.

These moves should put MySpace in a more competitive position vs.YouTube. The stakes are high, particularly as YouTube is testing social networking features on its TestTube test platform and is expected to challenge MySpace in the social networking arena.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:26 AM | Permalink

June 25, 2007

blinkx launches contextual online video search ad platform

The video search engine blinkx today announced its new advertising platform, AdHoc, billed as "the first contextually relevant video advertising platform." The program is designed to offer all media companies and advertisers a more flexible solution for customizing the timing and appearance of video ads to run alongside their published content online.

According to blinkx's press release, AdHoc is search technology that improves on how content can now be matched to relevant advertising. Blinkx explains that this is achieved by using their proprietary speech-to-text transcription and visual analysis technology, allowing better dynamic placement of the most pertinent advertising alongside published video.

“Online video presents an extremely attractive opportunity for advertisers and media companies: targeted distribution with the potential for immediate action, and the availability of real-time metrics to assess the effectiveness of a given campaign," citing blinkx' press release.

Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx, lists the advantages of the AdHoc program :

• Creative. More options are available for display ads, including pre-, post- and mid-roll placement, as well as dynamically-selected banners, in-video mini-banners and a unique, post-roll catalog view. Advertisements in the program are now running to both the right and bottom of the published video content.

• Ad database leverage. Partners can select their own ad database, the blinkx AdHoc platform, or even external ad systems, such as Google's AdWords.

• Open participation. The AdHoc program is an opt-in progam available to all advertisers, media companies and other partners today. By contrast, YouTube, currently the most trafficked online video search engine, restricts its own ad leverage program to professional partners and a small group of highly popular “preferred” partners.

“The AdHoc platform is revolutionary because it was built from the ground up to address rich media, resulting in higher monetization for media companies, more effective marketing for advertisers and, most importantly, a useful, non-disruptive experience for users.” adds Suranga.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 15, 2007

Searching Through Widget Content

Widgets are a very convenient way to share your favorite photos these days. Just upload your media and integrate them on your social pages, blogs or sites. Nearly 21% of the worldwide Internet audience has used them (per ComScore). Of course, the widget suppliers are quite pleased with this explosive growth.

Most of these embedded flash widgets are injected onto MySpace and now Facebook pages. But what happens when you want to actual search them? Not much.

* Within shows: All the tagging functionality seems to be lost in translation. If you did tag items, then they won't be part of the widgets. * Among shows: Particular slide shows or sets of photos can be titled or labeled. If you want to find a relevant show, then that functionality isn't available.

While widget traffic booms, it's time to consider more appropriate searching mechanisms. Tagging could be ported over, although it's a temporary fix since only dedicated users spend time tagging their media. We could wait for industry progress related to image searching, yet that's not ready for prime time. Also the other video and music sharing widgets aren't addressed.

Social destinations might provide the searching horsepower instead. Based on what people are sharing, their activities might “power” searching within or among shows. This could be explicit, based on what is actively shared or consumed among friends. Or it could be implicit, based on collaborate filtering tools that connect interests too.

As part of this widget news, the WSJ reported (subscription only) that widget suppliers are effectively creating new ad inventory. Today the suppliers are not permitted to insert ads on MySpace, and are also restricted on Facebook. So these and other social sites are sitting on this growing ad opportunity -- especially if they target their members' interests through or contiguous to these widgets.

Which brings us back, full circle, to why searching through widget content matters.

Posted by at 4:31 PM | Permalink

June 12, 2007

EveryZing – Beyond Podcasting

PodZinger, a major multimedia search and advertising platform, has just changed its name to EveryZing , signaling the extension of their market offering beyond podcasts. Employing the capability of their speech-to-text technology in extracting full text output from audio and video files across the Web, EveryZing offers full-text indexing of multimedia content. In the works is the employment of contextual advertising to multimedia and additional support for the discovery of multimedia content within major search engines.

Thanks to EveryZing, “recognized as the Best Web 2.0 Application in 2006 by the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange” , media companies can use EveryZing to distribute their branded digital content. EveryZing's web-based services platform, lets users explore new ways to monetize their digital assets and how to take advantage of consumer demand for digital content.

For those holding significant digital assets, who are concerned that they have failed to realize the optimum value from their holdings, EveryZing may offer new options well worth exploring.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:08 AM | Permalink

June 8, 2007

SEW Experts: Balancing Video Quality and Search Optimization

In today's Vertical Challenge column, Balancing Video Quality and Search Optimization, Grant Crowell shows how to create quality video and shorten compression time, using YouTube as an example.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:57 AM | Permalink

June 5, 2007

Blinkx to power Ask.com's video search – interview with blinkx CEO

blinkx plc (“blinkx”), already the world's largest video search engine, today expanded its reach with the announcment of its exclusive video partnership with Ask.com – a leading multi-platform search destination and one of the top-4 platforms in total search traffic along with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.com.

The integration of video search results is a part of Ask's “Ask3D” search strategy, which incorporates multiples categories of search, or search “verticals,” into a single page of web results. This is expected to provide an increased relevance of search results in a more well-integrated, user-friendly interface.

For blinkx, Ask.com's new interface will provide a direct means for far more search users to access blinkx's video database. While blinkx currently maintains the largest public video search database online, their videos will now be much more accessible to a huge segment of the online population who search Ask.com, but have never visited, and are unlikely to directly visit, blinkx.com. Ask's new interface will likely help blinkx reach that market, and in turn, open up a considerably larger audience to video search.

In an interview with blinkx.com CEO and founder Suranga Chandratillake, he confirmed that blinkx shall be the exclusive partner of Ask.com for distribution of video search results.

“All of Ask.com's video search results will be coming from the blinkx search engine, an showing the same information as found on the blinkx site, right down to listing the original clip source,” says Suranga. “There are some small differences in their interface design for video search results and ours, but ultimately it's the same search engine. It's obviously great for us in that more traffic going through our system,” and great for the huge segment of Ask.com users that doesn't yet go directly to video search engine sties, but can now much more easily find relevant information via video search results directly into the Ask.com site.

“Which video results appear and where they appear [on the Ask.com results page] will depend on what you search for,” adds Suranga, “whether its more news-centric or video-centric.”

A few test queries in the new Ask.com interface show top video search results often fall just below text search results in its main body (on the larger, right-hand column of the search page) and randomly organized and compartmentalized along with other vertical searches. Clicking on the video link tab "More" (found both on the top of the left hand column and also under the short list of first-page video results), next reveals a page of blinkx's “video results from select sources.” Another click shows the full database of blinkx videos for a search query. Users can also sort video results by a certain time length, and/or file type.

In addition, blinkx will also provide the video search capabilities for Ask.com's Smart Answers. Other video services, such as blinkx remote, will still appear exclusively on the blilnkx site.) Blinkx will generate revenue from this relationship through video searches undertaken by Ask.com users.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 1, 2007

SEW Experts: The Local Video Revolution

In today's Vertical Challenge column, The Local Video Revolution, Michael Boland addresses the latest trends in local online video. He points out that video is a perfect venue for small businesses to advertise and for local search destinations like Citysearch, Superpages.com and YellowPages.com to integrate video with existing forms of local search advertising.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 5:51 AM | Permalink

May 29, 2007

80% of Podcast Listeners Seek Out Products They Hear About

As reported in the Guardian, a survey of over 300 U.K. podcast users done by Chrysalis Radio's download division found that 80% of those surveyed indicated that they would be more likely to seek out products and services after hearing about them.

Before rushing out to promote products via podcasts, it should be noted that the most popular subjects for audio downloads are books and films (not search engine marketing, surprise), and 55% of listeners seek out podcasts on entertainment topics. Electronic goods and gadgets are good targets, for 49% of listeners downloaded podcasts about gadgets and electronic goods.

The survey also found that podcasts have an underexploited social component inasmuch as 90% of those surveyed said they would consider forwarding audio shows to friends. Podcasters not already doing so should consider adding social bookmarking to their show's landing pages.

Confirmed by the survey is that podcasts are in a time-shifting medium. 75% of listeners listen at their convenience not during live show times and a similar number listen while away from home. While listening on an MP3 player or mobile phone (50%), podcast fans are engaged in exercise (10%), traveling on public transportation (20%) or doing housework (12%). Podcast listeners are dedicated listeners with 25% listening for up to two hours a day, but they are time-challenged, and a third of the time do not listen to their entire downloads. This suggests that if you want to make a point in your podcast, make it early since you may not get a chance to be heard if you wait until the end.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 10:05 AM | Permalink

May 25, 2007

Blinkx savors IPO success, announces video search growth plans

The following is a transcript of the recent Reuters UK interview with blinkx's CEO, Suranga Chadratillake, on its breakout success with soaring public shares, and growing plans with its new capital.

Reuters: The online video company blinkx is making a strong debut on London's alternative investment market after announcing a placement price of 45 pence per share, giving the newly demerged company – [demerging from the British search software specialist Autonomy Corp] – a market capitalization of 125 million pounds ($247 million). The oversubscribed shares were trading at close to 63 pence per share at last glance. To talk about the decision to float, and what lays ahead, I'm joined by the CEO of blinkx, Suranga Chadratillake. First of all, tell us how it feels to debut as the boss of a publicly listed, stand-alone company?

blinkx: It's absolutely exciting. Obviously, we been working very hard over the last few years and building a great business, and its great to take it to this next step.

Reuters: What will this flotation help you accomplish?

blinkx: It will help us accomplish a lot of things. First of all, the fact that we've been able to grow significant momentum in growing the index to where we are now – as the single largest video search engine on the web. Going forward, this allows us to do more of that, but do it on a bigger scale. This market we're playing in is one that's very, very large and growing very, very fast; and we have to grow our team and stay with that market.

Reuters: How are you fairing in your mission to become the “remote control” of video on the Web?

blinkx: I think we're absolutely getting there. Online television is at the stage where we're literally seeing an avalanche of content. We were at 7 million hours of content a couple of months ago. Today, we're at almost 13 million hours of content. You can see how fast its growing.

Reuters: A few months ago… you said the future of online content was mass proliferation. Is that what its still looking like?

blinkx: Yes, it absolutely is. I think the key thing there is looking at the type of content that's coming online. Until recently, the majority of online content was small, scrappy, amateur stuff – which was interesting and fun in lots of ways, but not really television. What we've seen over the last 6 months is the acceleration of actual TV content online. That's really exciting… but to really make use of it, to really navigate it – you need remote control. That's what Blinkx hopes to be.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Blinkx IPO shares soar to near-record debut

Shares of the video search company blinkx (ticker: BLNX), the largest video search engine on the web, soared on London's Alternative Investment Market on its first day of trading. Blinkx shares jumped 40% in a single day by close – from 45 pence to 65 pence – increasing its market cap to £180 million/$355 million.

For more information on blinkx's success with its IPO – and its growing plans and expectations – I recently interviewed a source close to the company.

Crowell: How does this debut IPO rank compared to other companies?

blinkx: We are being told that blinkx's performance is the second best debut in the last two years, on any exchange, UK or U.S.

Crowell: What does blinkx foresee as the benefits of its strong public showing in the stock market?

blinkx: The success of the IPO reflects a general acceptance that Web is moving from a text-based medium to a network for audio and video. The proof points are there: broadband is essentially ubiquitous, which means that content providers are eager to get their video on the web and monetize it; advertisers are quickly embracing the power of online video advertising; and finally, people are fundamentally changing the way they watch TV, consuming more and more news and entertainment online.

Crowell: Blinkx has often said that their unique technology has given them a tremendous lead on other video search engines. With the new money generated from the IPO, what are blinkx's plans for further developing its technology, and expanding its presence?

blinkx: The benefit of the money that we raised yesterday is that we can now expand our sales and development teams, and increase our presence in the industry… Blinkx has now signed deals with 130 media companies, and has indexed more than 12 million hours of video. … We also have plans to announce a broadband tv product later this year.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 18, 2007

Online News Is Hottest Video Search Category

According to data released by ClipBlast video news is the fastest-growing category on the Video Web. ClipBlast has found that video news now accounts for 32 percent of all the video that ClipBlast indexes. This is up from only 15 percent in January. This explosive growth is being driven by local television stations that are enhancing their coverage with streaming video displayed on their Web sites.

According to Hitwise the share of traffic leaving News and Media websites and going directly to Entertainment - Multimedia websites increased by 196% from April 2006 to March 2007. News events that involved user-generated video helped drove the increase in traffic between News and Media and Multimedia websites.

Viewers accustomed to getting the bulk of their news coverage from TV news are now finding video news on the Web in an increasing volume. Whether it is the execution of Saddam Hussein or the shootings at Virginia Tech, searchers will come to expect to find video on the Web covering the story. This should serve to drive even more traffic to news clips on the Web.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:23 AM | Permalink

May 15, 2007

ChaCha Partners with blinkx for Video Search

ChaCha, a search engine that search engine that uses human guides to enhance its search results, has announced a partnership with video search engine blinkx for multimedia content. Now, the video search results shown on ChaCha will come from blinkx's index of the video content. Users of ChaCha can either rely on the engine algorithm for results or seek assistance from one of ChaCha's guides who provide real time search assistance. Both companies will share in revenues generated from these search results.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 10:39 AM | Permalink

May 10, 2007

Last.fm and Music Video Search Tools

Online radio station Last.fm is expected to add a video section to its site this week that will allow users to create their own personalized video channels. Last.fm is partnering with a number of major producers such as EMI and Warner as well as independent labels. Last.fm's goal is to allow users to essentially set up their own video channels that will play the music videos of their choice.

Users who look for music videos of their favorite bands are often disappointed by the search results. Instead of getting the band, the results yield teenagers covering the band with their own amateur videos. Improved results are a must for music video fans.

The music video search niche is being filled by a growing number of tools for the music video enthusiast. There is a nice round-up of the burgeoning music video search tool universe by Josh Lowensohn in Webware. Three tools are reviewed: MusicTonic, Middio and iLike. Overall these music video search tools rely on scraping YouTube and Google videos and repackaging the results with their own interfaces. By pre-filtering the input to include videos from specific content provider channels, they are able to give improved results. The UI of each of these sites has different features and functionality. For example, with Middio it is possible to convert YouTube videos to iPod format. It will be interesting to see which in the long run captures the users.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 7:25 AM | Permalink

May 8, 2007

blinkx Adds French VODEO.TV Content

Through a partnership with VODEO.TV, a video-on-demand French language portal, video search engine blinkx has added 1500 hours of French television content to its index. Under the terms of the agreement , blinkx will transcribe and index VODEO.TV's video content. This will make it easier for French language users to find and watch video content. VODEO.TV's online video content includes documentaries and television programs on nature, travel, science, current affairs and sports. VODEO.TV audiences view or purchase programs via remote loading, streaming or DVD-on-Request.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 10:03 AM | Permalink

April 30, 2007

PBS Content Now Searchable on blinkx

Video search engine blinkx has added PBS streaming video content to its index. Now blinkx users will find hours of PBS educational, news and public affairs streaming content online. The searchable content that has been added includes documentaries and other popular PBS programs of high value to consumers and educators. With the addition of this content with its strong public service and educational focus, blinkx adds to the inventory of searchable video content available to and useful for educators. blinkx uses speech recognition technology to deliver results rather than standard metadata-based keyword searches. This approach is quite compatible and complementary to PBS's content-rich documentary and educational content.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 12:16 PM | Permalink

April 25, 2007

After a Few Financial Hoops, Blinkx Plans to Go Public

After navigating a series of financial hoops with enterprise search player Autonomy, privately held video search engine Blinkx will wind up as a public company on the London Stock Exchange.

The relationship between the two has always been murky at best. Blinkx, which is led by former Autonomy CTO Suranga Chandratillake, licenses unnamed portions of Autonomy's search technology. Apparently, those license agreements will now allow Autonomy to acquire Blinkx, which it will then spin off into its own public company, along with some R&D related to Autonomy's IDOL technology.

Autonomy's technology should also help Blinkx develop its own ad program, something it has planned for years, but delivered on only through partners like Miva and Eyeblaster.

The Financial Times story doesn't make things any clearer, though an Autonomy press release is a bit better, and Danny Sullivan has further sorted through some of the complexities.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:38 AM | Permalink

April 18, 2007

Interview with blinkx CTO & Founder on blinkx remote

I recently did an exclusive interview with Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CTO on blinkx, on their new technology tool for watching television online – blinkx remote. Here are some excerpts of that interview, and why Suranga is betting that his company's new tool will revolutionize people's viewing habits on the web.

Grant: In your press release, you meantion that blinkx's search technologies are better than keyword-only searches, claiming that they not only listen and decipher audio, but that they "see" - the Web, "helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere." Can you explain how blinkx's search techologies “see” the Web, and mix that in with the speech recognition experience?

Suranga: We use visual analysis to have software actually watch the video and infer meaning from its visual as well as aural properties.

Grant: Will blinkx be able to provide a directory of, or search by, networks and entertainment companies featuring television shows?

Suranga: Yes. To see a directory of the currently shows available, one can go right to the blinkx site and click on the icon in the upper right corner of their site – "Watch TV Online." The search function for TV shows is available in our advanced search page.

Grant: How are the short clips derived? Does blinkx use its own criteria, and what would that be? Or are they chosen by the actual content providers?

Suranga: All previews are auto-generated by blinkx.

Grant: Will there be free a well as paid downloads of these long-form shows?

Suranga: Yes, assuming they are available on the Web. Grant: Will these shows be accessible on all major media players? Even including the new MacTV?

Suranga: Yes, they should run on any standard web device. content is generally in windows media, mpg4 or flash, depending on the source.

Grant: Can the shows be downloaded directly to portable media players with WiFi or Bluetooth capability?

Suranga: Yes.

Coming tomorrow: Testing the technology

Posted by Grant Crowell at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TV Fans Can Now Reach for blinkx Remote

Video search engine blinkx has just introduced a tool, blinkx Remote that will let TV users find full-length TV programming available on the Web. The tools uses blinkx's speech to text recognition algorithm to identify TV shows by season and episode. The results are supplemented with information from several online sources including the Wikipedia and the Internet Movie Database.

With television networks rushing to make their programs available to Internet audiences, this is a timely launch. The tool makes it easier for viewers to go beyond the clips currently available by giving preference in the results to the full-length versions. If a user specifies an episode from a specific season, blinkx Remote can retrieve it. The searcher then has the option to watch the episode online or download it, if it is available, from sites such as Amazon and iTunes. It is even possible for the user to send it to their TiVo. Since blinkx has indexed over seven million hours of video and audio content, TV fans should be able to sit back and use the blinkx Remote to look for their favorite shows.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 10:04 AM | Permalink

March 26, 2007

TV Guide Joins the Video Search Race

When I was growing up, almost every home had a TV Guide sitting on the top of the family TV. Now TV Guide is looking to be on every computer desktop with its own video search engine. It looks like TV Guide is planning to move into Internet video. TV Guide will launch a test version next month of an online video search tool that allows viewers to find clips and full episodes of TV shows now being posted on the Web. The test will be followed by a formal launch in September.

This tool will not aggregate the huge and growing volume of consumer-generated video. Instead it will focus on network and original programming produced by major media companies. Plans call for it to aggregate the Internet video made available from some 60 Web sites from major networks such as ABC and Fox and other video portals such as AOL and Google.

TV Guide will combine metadata based search with its own database of information on television shows to provide relevant results that can be grouped by celebrity, network or genre.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:44 AM | Permalink

March 23, 2007

NewsCorp-NBC Deal Matters, But Not As Google-YouTube Killer

No one can argue that well-produced entertainment will draw an online crowd. If there's interesting product available online, then visitors or viewers will stream it. Especially if these media powerhouses have exclusive rights for recent fare, the demand will be there.

Finally, we have reached the point where it's acceptable to view longer videos. The online players work better, video is higher quality, and it's possible to consume video on different kinds of monitors/screens.

Frankly, I don't know why the consortium has been labeled as "Clown Co."

There's demand for online video, which hasn't been exhausted yet. From a marketing perspective, it's possible to promote blockbuster programming. Or perhaps a cable/satellite VOD type approach could work, by appealing to many smaller segments instead.

Let's consider the impact of long-form video opportunities. Instead of the three-minute clips, site visitors stick around. If they watch entire TV episodes, then that's over 20 minutes for a half-hour TV show or 45 minutes for an hour-long program. It's safe to assume that time spent will increase substantially versus current grazing times.

What about the revenue opportunities? There seem to be myriad ad placements. First, video ads can evolve from pre-roll to short commercial breaks. After all, the visitors are more committed to watching these videos. Second, there's advertising real estate surrounding the video screens. That means there are targeted video, banner and text ads to test here.

It's telling that the branded advertisers are committing themselves upfront. Of course, they trust old and new media already. It's not a linear buy like TV, so the reach and frequency numbers will be different. To keep the brands interested, the inventory will need to be growing and plentiful.

This consortium isn't meant to be a Google-YouTube killer or a portal that does everything, but should create some critical mass. If everyone can cooperate, then this might become a textbook example of old-new media success.

Posted by at 3:10 PM | Permalink

March 22, 2007

AOL, MSN, MySpace And Yahoo! Strike Deal for Video

News Corporation and NBC today announced the launch of an Internet video distribution network that will bring as soon as this summer television content to the Internet within hours of its first time distribution. AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! will be the new site's initial distribution partners. It is also anticipated that the site will include consumer-generated video as well as thousands of hours of full-length television programming, videos and clips. This will include premium content from a dozen networks and major film studios.

This network will offer free long- and short-form video. Each of the distribution partners will show the content via a customized embedded player. The venture promises on-air and on-line advertising opportunities. Initial advertisers already lined up include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel and General Motors. This distribution network will provide advertisers and users a powerful alternative to YouTube. Is Google worried? According to reports in the LA Times Google executives disdain for the project and have nicknamed the consortium: Clown Co. It remains to be seen who will have the last laugh.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 3:18 PM | Permalink

March 15, 2007

Has Video Search Arrived?

It's sad but true -- we can measure the maturity of any market by the ways it gets manipulated. By that measure, according to the Wall Street Journal's "Spam Hits Video Sites, Misleading Viewers" (paid subscription link), video search has arrived.

It seems the WSJ has discovered that many users are tagging their videos with irrelevant keywords, just to show up in popular searches. Imagine that.

For example, a recent search on Google Inc.'s YouTube site using a string of names of popular videogame devices -- "Playstation Xbox Nintendo PSP" -- turned up a nine-minute promotional clip for Argentine tourism, steamy shots of fashion models, footage of a parade in Germany and an apparently pirated clip of a concert by the band Queen.

The videos were there because the people who uploaded them to YouTube typed in hundreds of words to falsely describe them in the accompanying text -- unrelated words ranging from the names of the game devices to a list of countries including "Brazil Bulgaria Canada."

YouTube and Revver spokespeople each dismissed the effects of such spam as minimal, which is likely true. Right now, there's not as much incentive to do it, since the spammer doesn't stand to make money directly from someone viewing their videos. But that may change as video search engines explore new revenue models. The spam videos also stand little chance of getting enough high rankings to make the front page of most sites, or to appear high in search results.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:16 AM | Permalink

March 2, 2007

Microsoft's Appeal to Hollywood

Microsoft is reaching out to Hollywood studios to offer their assistance on anti-piracy efforts for its MSN Soapbox video sharing platform, currently in beta. According to a memo intercepted by Variety, MSN media and entertainment VP Blair Westlake said Microsoft is developing "what we believe content owners want and need: industry-leading notice and takedown ... practices, including tools that enable our content partners to more easily find content that is rightfully theirs and give us prompt notice so we can respond even more efficiently and expeditiously."

Those practices will not include filtering technology, such as that being asked of Google's YouTube by Viacom, according to the memo.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:31 PM | Permalink

February 28, 2007

Mobile, Video Search Ads Set to Grow?

After digging deeper into the results of its "State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" report, SEMPO has revealed that a majority of respondents in the North American study said they were interested in mobile and video search, but few were willing to pay more for those ads.

That's not surprising, given human nature -- if you ask someone if they'd like to pay more or less for something, I'd assume that most would choose "less." What's more interesting is the level of interest from marketers, indicating that these ad models may be farther along than some would think.

SEMPO reports that 66 percent of respondents say they would be interested in contextually targeted advertising attached to video search results. Of those marketers, 53 percent want contextual video ads, compared to 33 percent who want contextual text ads attached to video clips. For mobile, SEMPO found that 60 percent of respondents are interested in contextually targeted ads delivered to mobile search users.

Dana Todd, president of SEMPO, says she's cautiously optimistic on the future of mobile search.

"Advertisers go where the audience is interacting. In the U.S., the fact that everybody is carrying a cell phone is less important than what they're doing with it. Right now, they're using them in rudimentary ways, for communication, and for playing games and listening to music," Todd told SEW.

Todd pointed to a recent comScore study, which found that cell phone Internet usage is an activity for the young. That study found that 29 percent of respondents in the 25-34 demographic and 23 percent of 18-24 year olds currently subscribe to a cell phone Internet service, while only 13 percent of adults over 35 do so.

"Until users find it's a useful environment, we're not going to see significant play, but there's still a market there," Todd said. "This is an area where local search has the most promise. We need to look at how users are interacting with their phones, and find a way to engage them there."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:19 AM | Permalink

February 26, 2007

Google Mixes Videos in Organic Result

Looks like Google is experimenting with including videos in the organic results. Razvan Antonescu while searching in Google for “nightwish videos,” was served a Plusbox with a link reading “show video," in the search results right along with the textual snippet from the Google Video entry. He includes a screenshot of the results showing the video delivered right in with the serps. Plusboxes have been used previously for finance and maps. They are a good way for users to navigate to the video (or other type of) content without having to shift to the specialized engine. I was unable to replicate Razvan's results but will be on the lookout for additional instances.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 3:33 PM | Permalink

February 8, 2007

Lycos Jumps Into the Social Mix

With the launch of Lycos MIX (http://mix.lycos.com), a new bookmarking tool, Lycos users can pull video clips from a variety of different sources across the web (YouTube, MySpace,Yahoo Video, and others) into one playlist, creating a community around shared interests and topics.

Within the MIX interface, users can add new videos, rate and comment on all the videos within a given playlist. Playlists can be made private or kept public, and the owner of a content mix can approve or discard video additions.

Lycos Mix works for both PC and MAC users, and browsers including IE, Windows, Safari and Firefox support Lycos MIX.

More notes from the release:

“Lycos MIX continues the evolution of community and video with a true Web 2.0 collaborative, contributory and interactive social viewing experience,” said Brian Kalinowski, chief operating officer for Lycos, Inc. “Unlike social networking sites, each MIX is a collection of video clips where users socialize around content, not individual people or profiles, creating combinations of lasting content to share with others. With Lycos MIX, users can create an amalgamation of video content where others participate by viewing, commenting and adding more clips.”

Other unique functionality includes a “MIX It” bookmarklet feature, allowing users to quickly and easily add videos from other sites to their MIXES without cutting or pasting URL's. Robust permanent comment and rating system features also allow users to rate MIXES, as opposed to individual pieces of video content.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 12:38 PM | Permalink

February 6, 2007

Mywaves Adds Personalized Mobile Video Search

Video delivered to your phone, based on keyword search, is the essence of the new mywaves offering. Today mywaves announced the addition of a personalized search feature for its mobile video services. This free service offers users content directly to their mobile phones, sourced from many of the Web's top video sites, including Comedy Central, VH1, YouTube, Google, and CNN.

The new feature allows users to specify a search phrase that alerts mywaves of their interest. The service automatically delivers relevant videos to users' mobile phones and will send a text messages when new content is found. For those wanting to stay absolutely on top of the newest video content available, this adds a new dimension.

Mywaves currently is averaging 40,000 new sign-ups a week. The explosion of applications for viewing and transmitting video content makes it even more important for video content creators and search marketers to learn how to make their videos easier to find on the Web.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 7:19 PM | Permalink

Video Search Updates

Video search providers Searchforvideo and blinkx today made improvements to their video search platforms.

Searchforvideo debuted a new Web site that now sorts content by content provider, making it easier to find clips from a given service, such as iFilm, Heavy.com, AOL Video, Roo, and MSN Video. The search engine has been steadily adding content providers to its index, and this move makes those partnerships more prominent, and makes the searchforvideo.com more of a destination site.

Blinkx has added video content from Internet TV provider Veoh Networks. Veoh offers content from major entertainment studios and television networks, as well as independent video producers and enthusiasts. Blinkx has announced several such content partnerships in recent months. Deals have been made with professional content providers like QVC UK, Broadband Sports, World Fashion Channel, Rolling Stone and Boston.com, as well as with user-generated content sites like YouAreTV, VMix, and vpod.tv.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 10:14 AM | Permalink

February 2, 2007

blinkx Launches Video Widget for Integrating Video Into Websites

blinkx which uses speech-to-text transcription to index online video content, now has available a new widget "blinkx it" that will allow a user to embed code to display video streams in a blog or website. This new widget allows users to add contextually relevant video to almost any page. Code and configurations are available for Blogger and Xanga, as well as instructions for how to add Blinkx it to most sites.

With the widget in place, “blinkx it” will retrieve results based on the text it finds on the URL. If the website changes, “blinkx it” will retrieve the most relevant results for the new page. By embedding the “blinkx it” widget on a blog template “blinkx it” will automatically generate a list of related videos for every blog post. The widget works by reading the text of each individual post and finding videos that are about the same topic. For example if you blog about the Super Bowl “blinkx it” will find and display videos relating to it. Change topic to gardening in the next post and so too will the videos offered for that post.

Right now this is a neat feature for enhancing blogs and web sites with video content, but this sure looks and feels like a base for offering contextual advertising for video.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 11:19 AM | Permalink

MTV Networks Demands YouTube & Google Remove Unauthorized Videos

A Viacom spokesperson called me a few minutes ago, breaking this news, and sending along an official statement. Today, MTVNetworks and its parent company Viacom, are issuing an ultimatium to Google/YouTube: remove unauthorized content or else...

MTVNetworks/Viacom says that over 100,000 unauthorized clips of its video content – representing 1.2 billion video streams - appearing within Google and YouTube, must be removed immediately from its site.

The recent talk of adding short video ads ahead of content on YouTube may have been the last straw for MTV and Viacom, who clearly did not want Google to profit from showing unauthorized clips.

After months of ongoing discussions with YouTube and Google, it has become clear that YouTube is unwilling to come to a fair market agreement that would make Viacom content available to YouTube users. Filtering tools promised repeatedly by YouTube and Google have not been put in place, and they continue to host and stream vast amounts of unauthorized video. YouTube and Google retain all of the revenue generated from this practice, without extending fair compensation to the people who have expended all of the effort and cost to create it. The recent addition of YouTube-served content to Google Video Search simply compounds this issue. Virtually every other distributor has acknowledged the fair value of entertainment content and has taken deliberate steps to concluding agreements with content providers.

We have great respect for and loyalty to our audiences. We host more than 130 authorized web sites where millions of fans visit and interact with our content. Our internet portfolio has more visitors than any other entertainment company and we are always seeking distribution relationships to ensure that any of our products and services are easily accessible on every platform.

Our hope is that YouTube and Google will support a fair and authorized distribution model that allows consumers to continue to enjoy our very popular content now and in the future.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 30, 2007

Searchforvideo.com Adds Drop Down Search Functionality

Searchforvideo.com , an online video clip directory which aggregates and indexes references to video clips but does not host or stream online video content, has added drop down search functionality which enables users to select individual online video publishers from a drop down menu. The user can then restrict the search to the specific publisher. According to Searchforvideo.com the video publishers featured in the drop downs will rotate from time to time and will eventually move to paid placement opportunities.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:16 AM | Permalink

January 23, 2007

PodZinger Releases 2006 Top Search Terms for Audio and Video

PodZinger, the audio/video search engine has released the top searches and trends on its site for 2006. At PodZinger sports, talk personalities and world news dominate audio search while current events and pop culture rule online video.

The top audio and video search terms of 2006 were:

1) George Bush 2) Music Videos 3) Google 4) Red Sox 5) Leo Laporte 6) Iraq 7) Paris Hilton 8) iPod 9) Fantasy Football 10) American Idol

The most watched video podcasts of 2006 included:

1) ABC World News 2) Keith and The Girl 3) X-Play 4) CNN The Grist 5) Rumor Girls 6) ESApod 7) ICONS8) 8) Democracy Now! 9) Diggnation 10) TED Talks

Top 10 Most Played Audio/Video Podcasts of 2006 for PodZinger included:

1) WMMR's Preston and Steve 2) Radio Leo 3) KitKast 4) ABC World News 5) Keith and The Girl 6) X-Play 7) CNN The Gryst 8) Rumor Girls 9) The Geoff Show: Virgin Radio 10) ESApod

It is interesting to note that this list includes mainstream media entities such as CNN and ABC World News. It will be worth watching to see if this number grows in the future as users shift their media consumption to more portable devices and mainstream media makes more content available on the Web.

Because users of PodZinger are able to search the contents of audio and video content, the search engine can compute actual searches within the content not just directory type searches looking for content on a topic. For those who follow the top searches on a regular basis, PodZinger offers its own Zing Index which tracks who is being talked about in podcasts. This index also tracks the favorite YouTube searches of the week.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 5:09 PM | Permalink

January 10, 2007

More Web-Video for Television with Akimbo, SlingBox, and Apple TV

A theme at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week is the announcement of products that will allow consumers to view video on demand on any kind of screen. Of particular interest are a series of product announcements that bring Web-based video off the computer to the big screen of household television. This will expand the audience for video content, making it more valuable. This will increase the need for search marketers to make sure their video assets can be found through the search capabilities of video portals such as YouTube and Yahoo! Video.

Akimbo, a subscription-based Internet video on demand service, is working with Yahoo! Video to bring video from Yahoo! to its subscribers. With Akimbo subscribers will be able to browse a selection of popular and high-quality video from the Yahoo! Video service. The selections will be updated regularly and viewers can access titles for free and watch them on TV whenever they want.

At CES CBS television announced that it is working with Sling Media, the creators of the SlingBox™, on a new technology called Clip+Sling™. This is designed to help SlingBox customers share short segments of programming. It is anticipated that this will include clips from network shows as well as original content and mash-ups. Content created with the Clip+Sling™ can also be shared across the Web on portals such as YouTube.

In fact YouTube and CBS have announced a contest where every two weeks CBS will select five videos and post them on cbs.com . These videos will qualify to run on national television.

Apple also announced its new Apple TV™, which lets users wirelessly play iTunes® content from a Mac® or PC on their television. This includes movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts. With the Apple Remote users view their entire collection of digital media on their television screen from their easy chair.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 12:06 PM | Permalink

January 8, 2007

Search YouTube Content with Podzinger

Podzinger, the speech-to-text video and audio search engine, has announced the extension of their technology to searching the content in YouTube videos. A click on a tab on the front page of the Podzinger search interface lets the user search for spoken content in YouTube videos. Now, searchers no longer need to rely on just the text and tags provided by YouTube submitters, but can find keyword mentions directly in the video. As noted in the Podzinger blog:

“with this new PodZinger feature, you can access and search YouTube material allowing for more specific search of their user generated content. Now besides simply searching on the metadata of the video files, you can search for terms that are actually mentioned inside the audio, allowing for a greater likelihood you will find relevant material. We're also automatically organizing the videos into channels based on the actual content of the video.”

The current channels include entertainment, sports, and anime. More are expected soon.

As the SplashCast blog notes this new feature has potential for those who want to do competitive intelligence. Users tracking mentions of their organization can build an RSS feed on Podzinger based on their search terms and receive alerts from Podzinger that show them exactly the time-stamped location where their term appears in the video and a content snippet whereby they can readily track how their organization is being portrayed in the video.

A series of searches shows that when a video relies heavily on imagery instead of spoken text, Podzinger's technology has nothing to search and will not deliver the video in its results. On the other hand, YouTube which uses the meta data submitted by the user, will deliver the video in the search results. In short the results will differ for the same term in YouTube and Podzinger. SplashCast recommends that competitive intelligence searchers use two similar feeds, one from Podzinger and another from YouTube. This approach will capture relevant mentions in the spoken text and the meta information.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 9:58 AM | Permalink

December 27, 2006

Clipblast! Releases List of Top Video Searches in 2006

Clipblast.com, which can be classified as a meta search engine that searches for online videos in 'real-time', announced today their Top 10 most popular searches for Internet video clips in 2006. The engine has indexed millions of video clips from across the Web. The company's patent-pending technology crawls the Web in search of video, then categorizes video files, Web pages and feeds so that the most relevant clips can be served up in real-time, on demand.

Not surprisingly, celebrities behaving badly top the list, but also some of the biggest US news stories, as well as World Cup soccer action made the cut. The year's most popular video searches according to Clipblast.com, searching on any of the topics below will return an array of videos from different sources:

1. Steve Irwin – the crocodile hunter was celebrated, memorialized and mourned after his untimely death.

2. Borat – Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man became a bona fide cultural phenomenon.

3. World Cup – four weeks of nonstop soccer action, 32 national teams and one infamous head-butt scored big with sports fans.

4. Al Zarqawi – the June death of Iraq's Al-Qaeda leader in a U.S military strike was big news on the Web.

5. Britney Spears – between the new baby, the messy divorce and the no-panties partying, Britney was an online-video favorite.

6. Michael Richards – a bad stand-up comedy set laced with the liberal use of a very bad word made Kramer from Seinfeld a hit once again with Web surfers.

7. JonBenet Ramsey – nearly 10 years after her unsolved murder, the nation's fascination with the tiny-tot beauty queen was rekindled by a "confession" that proved to be yet another dead end.

8. George W. Bush – the President's popularity may have taken a beating in the opinion polls, but he came out a winner in the video-search bar.

9. Cory Lidle – the death of the New York Yankees pitcher became headline news – not just sports news – when his plane slammed into a Manhattan apartment building. . 10. Mel Gibson – the actor and director got a prolonged and not-too-flattering close-up after his July arrest and anti-Semitic tirade.

Borat and Michael Richards, along with YouTube and the late James Kim (cNET editor), are also featured in ClipBlast!'s "A Life in Video." A Life in Video, which highlights the Web's best video clips on a particular subject, will officially debut in 2007.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 5:54 PM | Permalink

December 20, 2006

Podzinger Powers Search Capabilities for Thames Valley

Yesterday, Podzinger announced that it is powering the search for Thames Valley pod.tv This is Podzinger's first venture outside the United States. Podzinger expects to continue expanding its reach through similar partnerships.

Thames Valley pod.tv is the UK's fastest growing video podcast webTV site and provides commercially sponsored content in a variety of areas including art, music, cooking, gardening, and business.

Podzinger uses speech-to-text technology that creates a text index of the video sound track. With Podzinger, users through keyword searches can find keyword-specific content anywhere in either audios or videos. The searcher can jump directly to the point where their keyword is spoken without having to listen or view and entire audio or video clip. Instead of relying on a paragraph of text or a series of tags to describe the show, Podzinger directly searches the content.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 8:44 AM | Permalink

December 14, 2006

Nayio Gives New Meaning to “Hum Me a Few Bars . . .”

Nayio has launched a new search tool which will guide consumers to songs even when they don't remember the words. All the consumer has to do is hum a few bars into the computer's microphone and the search tool will find the words. Through a partnership with Napster, the service cross-references the hummed melody with Napster's huge library of more than three million songs to deliver a list of potential matches. Each resulting match includes a NapsterLink, which directly links to the song on the Napster.com Web site. Hummers can then use Napster's Web-based service to listen to the song for free or purchase it for downloading. Now, you can quickly unchain that melody that you just can't place with its lyrics or artist.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 3:20 PM | Permalink

November 28, 2006

Exalead CEO Warns Of "Google Monster" & Closed Yahoo & Microsoft

The Multilingual Search Blog covers Exalead CEO Francois Bourdoncle taking a big stick and swinging at Google in a keynote talk at SES Paris. He positions his own service as potentially the savior for those in Europe worried about the "Google monster." Beyond Google, he also criticizes Yahoo and Microsoft for collaborating on a "closed" sitemaps protocol. I'd say the Cold War against American-based search engines is going up a notch.

Let's deal with the Google Monster idea first:

The press in particular should be worried about becoming sub-contractors of Google, he said. Whilst at present Google News brings plenty of traffic to sites under the brand names of the press outlets, this would change to Google's brand in the future.

Actually, Google News has always operated under the Google brand. So much for that secret Google master plan, I guess. In fact, despite using the Google brand, I just covered some stats yesterday showing how Google sends upwards of 22 percent of traffic to newspapers sites.

Of course, Bourdoncle may have meant that in the future, Google will actually host content on Google itself, saving people from making a click through to news sites. Possible. And if so, ironically the newspapers may have themselves to blame. Go back to my write-up about the AP deal with Google. How exactly Google will make more use of AP content remains to be seen. But I explained that there's good reason that Google might host AP content on Google itself, similar to what Topix does.

Google's largely seen to have cut the AP deal in part because the AP may have been threatening legal action. Do a deal, the issue over spidering goes away -- and Google can host news content on its own site. As more companies clamor for deals (such as in Belgium this week), Google might transform into a content hosting service rather than pointing to content elsewhere.

By the way, Yahoo News already operates this way, hosting plenty of news content of its own. So even if Google goes that route, why haven't news organizations been complaining about the Yahoo monster? My guess would be that once you cut deals to host content, you seem less monstrous. And that works again against what Bourdoncle warns. If Google does host content, the news organization should be happy given they will have done the partnering to make that happen.

Bourdoncle isn't the only search engine to swing a torch around to rally the villagers against the Frankenstein's monster of Google. Microsoft just did this last month. CEO Steve Ballmer positioned Google as "transferring the wealth out of the hands of rights holders." Microsoft, of course, does much of the crawling and content gathering that Google does. It's hard to see how it is somehow more altruistic.

Such statements make good headlines, and I'd say they're going to play even better in Europe, which has watched the search industry rise into generating billions of dollars for America, rather than euros for Europe. There are also some serious cultural and political issues to consider. Many people may simply be more comfortable using a service that grew natively from their own country. I don't discount these worries and have great respect for them. I just dislike much of the scare mongering I also see that often feels like politicians and private companies hoping to position their own agendas, rather than a common good.

Such worries are one reason the Quaero project emerged, a planned multimedia search engine that will get government funds. I've likened this to being a Boeing versus Airbus challenge in the search world -- and also covered how Europe has had no lack of native technology already that grew without government subsidies.

Exalead is part of the Quaero project, though I remain confused about how to find more about it and what exactly it is doing. There used to be a site here that brings up nothing but a logon page. I've also seen the Quaero.org site referred to as the home of the project. That's entirely in French and German, and my German remains pretty bad. But I'm pretty sure I don't even see the word Quaero mentioned there.

Anyway, it's long been on my list to catch-up on the project. Chris Sherman's out in France today, and I think he's actually planning to talk with Exalead about Quaero more. So stay tuned.

Finally, Google wasn't alone for criticism:

He also criticised the new sitemaps collaboration announced by Google, Yahoo and MSN at Pubcon in Las Vegas. He said, “The sitemaps specification is not nice and open and it not nice and closed”. He believes the initiative aims to close the door to new entrants to the market place.

Frankly, I disagree. Google's had a sitemaps system out for over a year. In that time, I heard not one word out of Exalead that it thought it made sense that this should be expanded to be supported by other search engines. Now Google, Yahoo and Microsoft agreed to a common specification. Exalead could jump into supporting that now, if they wanted. They could also produce a rival format, if they wanted (and what joy that would be). But instead, what they support is a single page-by-page submission feature. Criticizing a bulk submission feature of your rivals when you offer none of your own doesn't win points in my book.

Instead, I'd say the real issue is that Exalead didn't get to sit at the big table in working out the agreement along with the other three. That is unfortunate, just as I felt Ask should have been included as well. Exalead is an excellent search engine that deserves the attention of both searchers and the search engine industry alike -- as is Ask.

Not being included from the start was unfortunate, but forgivable, as long as we see a working group expand going forward. I'm all for that, though I don't want expansion to slow things down. It also makes sense that the market leaders -- the services with the most queries and thus the most attention from site owners -- are going to take the lead in these things.

Postscript: Quest for a Euro-Google from the BBC earlier this year provides a longer look at Quaero and Exalead's involvement.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:23 AM | Permalink

November 22, 2006

Baidu Wins Copyright Case Against Music Companies

Melanie Colburn writes that Music Labels Lose Copyright Suit Against Baidu, which started back when Five Music Companies Sue Baidu in September of 2005. Baidu was previously ordered to stop these music downloads but it appears the ruling was overturned because all Baidu is providing are links to 3rd party sites that facilitate the music downloads, whereas Baidu does not participate in the downloads themselves. More details at the BBC News.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:37 AM | Permalink

November 14, 2006

Video Search Beyond YouTube

Google's recent purchase of YouTube is yet another sign that video search is one of the hottest areas on the web today. But while YouTube seems synonymous with video on the web, there are many other video search services available, and many offer valuable tools and features not found elsewhere. In today's SearchDay article, Video Search Made the Internet Star, SEW managing editor Elisabeth Osmeloski take a look at a number of these video search services.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:21 PM | Permalink

November 13, 2006

Google Video Getting Caption Search; Customizing The Player & More Features

This weekend, the Google Operating System blog wrote up a trifecta on Google Video. It explained that Google Video is apparently to allow you to search inside videos by matching captioning information, if provided. Eventually, Google Video keyword alters are also to be offered. Google OS also highlighted that Google is offering more stats on a particular video's usage, such as number of views, the overall rank, the number of views from yesterday, yesterday's rank and more. Finally, Google OS showed ways to customize the embedded Google Video player to make it larger, smaller, loop, add send buttons and other features. Interesting bits of information and great finds.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:59 AM | Permalink

November 8, 2006

Like.com Offers Visual Fashion Search

Image search company Riya has applied its matching technology to a new fashion shopping site called Like. The idea is that you if you find a fashion item you like -- a particular handbag, pair of shoes, watch or jewelry -- the search engine will find related products by examining the actual image. You can keyword search, browse products or browse items worn by celebrities to get matches.

I love watches, so I gave it a spin. In particular, I have a large collection of Swatches. So, I started off to see what swatches would bring back. I got plenty of matches, and a "Hawaii" swatch on the first page caught my eye.

Clicking on it brought up a new page, allowing me to pick what I liked the most about it in degrees using sliders, for these criteria:

Color
Shape
Pattern

It was the pattern more than anything else, so I kicked that slider up. The results changed, bringing up mainly heart monitoring watches first. Not what I wanted!

Next I tried browse mode. I was able to drill into the analog round matches, but none of these were to my fancy.

Now it was time for what's clearly the hype factor -- search for something that a celebrity is wearing. The gallery has only two men, and while I have little in common with either Diddy or Brad Pitt, I went the Brad route. One shot of him was when he was wearing a watch, so I clicked on that.

A page came up with watches similar to what he had. Was this image matching magic? Preset examples always make me wary -- they typically have been refined and fine-tuned. Even if not, I don't know that I need image matching technology to easily find watches like he was wearing. Here -- see accessories like those worn by Cameron Diaz, no image search required.

The real test will be when, as Somewhat Frank says, you'll be able to upload images of your own and do searches. Or, you can play with searches of the many existing images and see how it goes. I wasn't blown away by it, but I only did the few queries above. Another product, another search, perhaps it would be great. It's certainly worth trying and keeping in mind.

Riya's Like.com Is First True Visual Image Search at TechCrunch talks about the background, the idea that Riya is a leading company trying to match images based on images, rather than words. Riya's received lots of attention over the past year for its technology, but it's notable that so far, the company doesn't seem to have had much financial success. This type of matching is the third direction it has now gone in.

First, Riya seemed targeted to help you upload photos of people and do face recognition to find others. Then Google was rumored to be interested, though that never went through. Google later acquired another image recognition company, Neven Vision.

Riya shifted to being a web image search service, which remains running at Riya.com. The current focus on fashion products is tied to where Riya says users were most interested. ZDNet has more on this. You can also check out CEO Munjal Shah's blog for background.

Need another review? The Wall Street Journal takes a look for paid subscribers in Where to Find a Famous Look and seems mostly happy.

Like the idea? Here are some reports of shopping search engines with matching features you might like:

Postscript: Pixsta tips me off to Chez Imelda, where they power visual shoe search. Gary Price also has a list of other visual search services here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:41 AM | Permalink

October 11, 2006

MySpace Threatens YouTube After Google's Buyout

A Wall Street Journal article shows how the folks over at News Corp., the owners of MySpace.com, have threatened to cut "off the MySpace links to YouTube" because YouTube didn't respond to News Corp's email request to have an "opportunity to participate in the sale process." Google with YouTube and News Corp. with MySpace are to meet this week in LA to "discuss new ways of working together." The Wall Street Journal explains that News Corp. is threatened by the acquisition of YouTube by Google, making YouTube a much more powerful competitor to the MySpace property.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:44 AM | Permalink

October 10, 2006

Recapping Coverage Of Google's Acquisition Of YouTube

I don't have a ton to say about the Google acquisition of YouTube. That's because to me, it's more an eyeball landgrab than a search development. There's no doubt people search for video on YouTube, and getting the leading property will help Google. But the searching isn't the deep dive video search involving transcripts linked to video clips or other technological advances you might think Google would want in a more in a true search deal. This, to me, is basically YouTube as a hot property that Google hasn't been able to replicate with its own Google Video.

In particular, Google sees online video ads as a big step forward in generating revenue (rather than organizing information). Getting YouTube makes much sense, in that regard. YouTube has the eyeballs watching video. Google wants to shove ads in front of those eyeballs.

Various people see sense in YouTube diving for the copyright cover that Google's somehow supposedly going to extend. I don't know what super copyright protection technology they're expecting Google to cook up. To date, Google has had plenty of copyright violations it struggles with.

Overall, the biggest takeaway for me is how the YouTube purchase is the end of an era of Google buying small. To date, most purchases have been tiny. But with loads of cash in its pockets, Google's jumped into the second round of billion dollar purchases of web sites that's been going on.

Some headlines from the ample coverage out there that particularly caught my eye.

Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock - Press release covering the $1.65 billion all stock deal leaving YouTube to operate independently, with the deal to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Google-YouTube WebCast - Follow the links on this page to watch the press conference from yesterday. Ironically, I can't find the conference having been posted to Google Video or YouTube. A Message From Chad and Steve is a video message about the sale from YouTube's cofounders.
SeekingAlpha's Google Transcripts - Transcripts of Google's financial discussions often posted here. So far, one from the deal is not up. That might change, though perhaps not, since this wasn't an earnings call.
Google to Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion - New York Times overview coverage, noting that Microsoft, Yahoo, Viacom and News Corporation were also interested. YouTube to stay mainly independent. YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley said his company wanted to stay independent and the sale makes it "still the case." We'll see.
Google Looks To Boost Ads With YouTube - Wall Street Journal overview coverage, paid subscription required. Nice chart on some past Google acquisitions. Nice detail on YouTube rejecting an earlier lower offer from Google and Yahoo's 24 hour offer expiring, with Yahoo having concerns about copyright and revenue issues. Touches on the deal threatening to create a rift between Google and News Corp, which owns MySpace, the biggest property in the ad deal Google and News Corp signed in August.
Google to buy YouTube in its biggest deal yet - Reuters overview coverage.
Google snaps up YouTube for $1.65B - Associated Press overview coverage.
Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion - Niall Kennedy points out how the purchase price is similar to eBay's huge acquisition price of PayPal.
What Google's YouTube deal means for Microsoft - Seattle Press Intelligencer looks at Microsoft thinking Google paid too much.
I still think Google is crazy :) - Mark Cuban figures one copyright lawsuit will put Google out of business. Perhaps. Then again, we heard that about click fraud. What happened? Google paid an incredibly tiny amount to wipe out click fraud exposure in the US and continues to rake in the profits. Google does have digital rights management on video it sells, unlike what he says. And since YouTube apparently has one copyright case against it already, Google's already getting into that hot water now. Time will tell how it plays out.
YouTube, your copyright and Google - News.com has a nice look at copyright issues with YouTube, such as takedown notices and automatic detection.
Google YouTube Conference Call - Search Engine Journal with conference call coverage.
Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion - Silicon Valley Watcher with conference call coverage.
First Blush on GooTube - Conference Call - John Battelle with some conference call coverage. I'm with him on the point that Blogger was an out-of-brand purchase for Google, as was Deja before that -- but neither approached this scale or degree of autidence.
Google/YouTube Conference Call - InsideGoogle with conference call coverage.
GOOG-YouTube: Conference Call: No Name Change; Audio - PaidContent on conference call coverage.
Google Purchases YouTube for $1.65B - Google Watch, with this quote from the conference call from Sergey Brin: "We spend a lot of time working on our two core areas of search and advertising," said Brin. "And when you think about search, when you want an explanation about something, what better way than to actually see it in video?" Also notes Google Video's not going away.
Google Acquires YouTube, Becomes the Archetypal Media Company - The story's pretty short, but I liked this headline and Publishing 2.0. Yes, spare us the argument Google's not a media company. YouTube is simply another way Google will effectively own lots and lots of media to show ads.
One way to look at it - Very short post by Blogger founder Evan Williams, and right on target: "It's a great example of how and why a focused startup can compete with the big guys. Google not only had a video product that was a competitor, they started it before YouTube existed. Then YouTube came along an kicked their butt into paying through the nose for them." Googlers are surprised from him also notes three Googlers expressing disbelief or amazement.
Deal creates new Valley stars - San Jose Mercury News with good backstory on the birth of YouTube.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:08 AM | Permalink

October 9, 2006

Microsoft Partners With Blinkx On Video Search

Blinkx signs Microsoft pact from Reuters covers how video search company Blinkx is expected to announce today a partnership with Microsoft to power Microsoft's video search needs, such as at Windows Live Search Videos.

Interestingly, Blinkx is to get a licensing fee rather than a cut of revenues. Licensing fees for search results largely died out around 2001.

Microsoft Live's video search is currently powered by AOL Truveo technology (compare a search for cars on Windows Live Video to AOL's Truveo-powered SearchVideo and you'll see the results are the same). Microsoft said last month it was planning to develop its own video search tech.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:18 AM | Permalink

September 29, 2006

Yotophoto For Finding Free Photos Fast

Yotophoto is a fast and easy to use image search engine. There are plenty of image search engines available of course, but that's no reason why there shouldn't be one more. The focus of Yotophoto however is on making 'open and copyleft' images available to educators, bloggers and digital artists. Consequently Yotophoto acts as a multi/meta search engine, scouring resources such as Flickr, Wikipedia, Stock.Xchng, Morguefile, Pixelperfect Digital and OpenPhoto for images in the public domain, or made available under CC, GNU FDL or similar licenses.

The interface is neat and tidy, easy to use and the results are displayed 20 at a time. Images are shown in thumbnail with source, type of license and size displayed below. Advanced search functionality allows for searches on all/any/exclude words, four types of license, 4 image sizes, 3 orientations (landscape, portrait and square) and finally color, either by hex value or from a chart.

This last is quite useful since it would be possible to find images that were the same color as a logo for example, or where photographs needed to fit into a specific website color scheme. I would have liked to have seen an option for b&w/greyscale though.

The searches that I ran all gave me good on topic results, in many cases different to those that I was getting from other image search engines. No need to worry about adult images either; I tried very hard to find some, but was pleased to see that I didn't retrieve any (though searchers should always be wary in case something objectionable slips thru the net).

I don't think that Yotophoto is going to replace your preferred image search engine, but it provides a useful twist and would be a good addition to the searching armory.

Posted by Phil Bradley at 9:42 AM | Permalink

September 25, 2006

Pluggd Promises Podcast Concept Searching, But We Still Need Better Basic Keyword Searching

Pluggd to make podcasts chunkier, searchable at TechCrunch covers how podcast search service Pluggd plans to make it possible to search podcasts by concept, rather than keyword. That sounds cool, but there's still some ways to go before I'm full of excitement.

The screenshot above shows how I searched for "golf," then the sections of the podcast related to golf was highlighted so that I could scroll over and listen in the right place.

Some issues with the Pluggd service:

Right now, you can do it for only one single podcast here. Hundreds of thousands are promised to be analyzed down the line.
When typical searches tend to be only a few words, you don't need a ton of conceptual searching. In other words, in the test file, I searched for golf. The "heat map" display above did a nice job of showing me where in the file that word plus words related to golf were being discussed. Very, very nice. But if you've found the references to the single word golf, it's pretty likely you've hit the conceptually related terms, as well. Then again, "golfing" should be conceptually related to "golf," yet that failed to bring up any matches when I changed to that term.
No transcripts are shown. One of the main reasons I find people want to search podcasts by keywords is so they can read what they don't have time to listen to. Finding the key sections is nice, but the service as of yet doesn't allow you to read what was said.

Actually transcripts may come down the line, perhaps. At the moment, Podzinger and Podscope are the leading choices, if you want transcripts now. To date, I haven't been that impressed by them.

Here's an example of this in action at Podzinger. I did a search for google belgium, and you can see how mentions of those words in various podcasts get highlighted. Scroll down, and you'll see a series called "Podemus" which seems to be rebroadcasting my Daily SearchCast podcast from September 19. You'll see a summary like this:

cool there with you mean you know as a whole school belgium's scandal we're going to get into Now let the matter -- because that means that went on around me at all let's let's dive right into i think the big story that came out of the weekend was this whole thing where intelligent court has ordered google to remove Belgian newspapers from google news because Apparently these VA an organization that oversees copyright issues the newspapers had said the court that google would do all the weapons violations by shelling out articles and photographs the stuff like that -- The quickly court has ruled that google has two

Doesn't make much sense, does it? If it did, it would be nice to click through and see the entire transcript for the podcast. So far, that doesn't seem possible.

Over at Podscope, that same google belgium search came back with nothing. This is despite me knowing they must have at least one podcast mentioning both words. I can see this in a search just for google, where the Daily SearchCast as broadcast out of WebmasterRadio.fm says:

Danny and SEGuru storm into town on a sunny Friday and deliver the search news with reckless abandon: Google Loses Appeal On Posting Belgian Ruling; Google & Saturn Team Up On Video Ads, Google Earth Promotion; Google On How To Let Googlebot In, Keep Bad Bots Out and More!

That's not out of the spoken words of the show. It comes from the meta information. Still, I know the words are in there -- but they weren't found.

Overall, I like how Podzinger shows the actual words. I just wish the transcriptions actually seemed to word. Couple that with the nice heat maps that Pluggd is offering, and plenty of folks will like the combination. For now, it remains baby steps.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:18 AM | Permalink

September 20, 2006

Yahoo Teams Up With Gore's Current TV

The news is buzzing about the Current TV and Yahoo partnership. Current TV, founded by Al Gore, and Yahoo announced the launch of The Yahoo Current Network. This network is to "combine professional and user-generated video clips" reports the New York Times. The paper says each show will likely "be preceded by a 15- or 30-second commercial," which is the first time Yahoo "included commercials with user-generated content." TechCrunch notes that this video at Yahoo describes a bit more about how the shows will run, and it also describes "VC2," viewer created content (i.e. user generated content). The user contributed videos can earn $100 for each chosen clip and if that clip is broadcast on Current's television network, you can earn between $500 and $1,000, according to the New York Times.

This is all somewhat a bit interesting in the sense that Google has a long standing relationship with Current TV. They launched the Google Current (more also here) show on Current TV a bit back. Plus Al Gore has been an adviser to Google in the past. Gore said, "Yahoo is very different from Google. Yahoo for a long time has been much more in the media space." Yahoo is a media company, Google is a search company.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:25 AM | Permalink

September 19, 2006

Video Search Usage for August 2006

Hitwise just released August 2006 market share data for the most popular online video search sites. Not surprisingly, YouTube leads with a 45.46% share of visits. MySpace Videos follows with about half the search traffic at 22.99%, and Google Video is the next closest with 10.25% of market share. Yahoo! Video and MSN Video round out the Top 5, with 6.06% and 5.92%, respectively.

Posted by Elisabeth Osmeloski at 2:20 PM | Permalink

September 1, 2006

Google Images Labeler: Google's Challenge To Flickr?

Google Blogoscoped spotted the Google Image Labeler game, designed to help Google improve its image search results through tagging. It feels like a catch-up game with human-powered efforts that Yahoo is embracing via Flickr -- plus it also looks pretty influenced by the work of Luis von Ahn and his ESP Game.

The game pits you against someone else. If you see a picture of a car, and you both label it car, you can proceed to the next image. You continue until your time has run out. Here is an image of Horcrux and Barry Schwartz from our blog (rustybrick) scoring 300 points for matching tags on three images.

Image search has been tough for search engines. They can't easily tell what an image is about, since there's no good way to "see" the images and categorize them. Some technologies to recognize faces, colors, shapes, objects and other things are improving. Still, it's hard with an image of someone like Martha Stewart. Is she a woman, celebrity, criminal or just Martha Stewart? Or all of these? How do you know which one or ensure that all of them are applied.

Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz is probably one of the most famous converts from turning to human power over computer power. He's been cited many times as having originally sought a technological solution to understanding what's in video and image data, then moved to embrace people power. Here's one example of that from a Wired article last year:

Horowitz's favorite project is incorporating people-powered metadata systems from two other Yahoo! properties: the recommendation technology from Yahoo! Music and the tagging features from Flickr, the photoblogging company Yahoo! acquired this spring. Google's original stroke of genius was figuring out how to piggyback on human judgment by following the links people make between Web sites. Horowitz is borrowing functionality from two Yahoo! properties to develop something similar for video.

We've just seen Yahoo make more of a commitment to using that human power when it started inserting Flickr results, rather than Yahoo Image results (which are computer sorted), into regular web searches last week.

Google, of course, has no Flickr to use. Enter the game. It's designed to get lots of people to quickly label images because they want to have fun. If that concept sounds familiar, it's because that's exactly the method behind the ESP Game, created by Carnegie Mellon professor Luis von Ahn.

I first learned of Ahn's work through a 2003 Associated Press article, Researchers Hope to Improve Web Searches. His ESP Game came later. The Google system looks like a copy of it, perhaps with his cooperation. Perhaps he's even there now -- I'm checking. We know he was there just last month, because here's a video of his lecture on classifying images (well worth watching). That Martha Stewart example above? That came from his video. I've also embedded it below:

In his video, Ahn thinks that in two months, all images on Google Images could be labeled. It's not hard to believe after hearing that, Google jumped to try this.

Postscript: I heard back from Luis von Ahn, who sent me this:

Yes, Image Labeler is based on my ESP Game, which Google licensed. I'm not employed by Google, however, since I'm a full-time faculty member at Carnegie Mellon.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:43 AM | Permalink

August 31, 2006

Flickr #1 Photography Site In UK

Hitwise is reporting that Flickr is the #1 photography site in the UK. This isn't really a surprise at all - what's more suprising is that it's taken a while to get there, and how it's got there.

Flickr's UK market share has increased 39%, Photobucket's share decreased by 17% and Webshot's remained flat. This is apparently due good SEO and searches for soft porn using the brand name and various terms you can work out for yourself.

In some respects this is worthy of nothing more than a wry smile and shrug of the shoulders. Unfortunately however, this may be seen in some circles as a justification for the calls for libraries to limit their (innocent) involvement with Flickr.

As reported by Michael Stephens in ALA TechSource back in July various emails have been flying around making rather silly claims. While these emails seem to have been centered on American libraries it will be interesting to see if the same thing happens in the UK. I rather doubt that it will, but it's worth watching out for. So, a slightly double edged sword for Flickr in Britain.

Posted by Phil Bradley at 12:43 PM | Permalink

August 24, 2006

Mobile Search for TV Listings

TV Guide and mobile local search content provider 4Info have teamed up to permit cellphone users to access TV Guide's listings content via SMS or WAP. Here's the announcement.

This is obviously for people who MUST know when their favorite TV shows are on (but wouldn't they already know?). While this is probably ultimately about PR and branding for TV Guide, it probably will get some usage. My question is: wouldn't it just be easier to get a TiVo?

Posted by Greg Sterling at 4:01 AM | Permalink

August 16, 2006

More than Organizing Photos? Google Acquires Neven Vision

Adrian Graham, Picasa's Product Manager, made a post Tuesday morning on the Official Google Blog titled A better way to organize photos? in which he announced that the team at Neven Vision has now joined Google. His post tells us that Neven Vision's software will make it easier for people to find and organize their photos. But, is there more to the purchase? Looking around some blogs that discussed the acquisition holds hints to possibily more.

I first read about this acquisition over on the Google Operating System Blog, in Object Recognition Is The Future Of Google, where I learned that the facial recognition software developed by Neven Vision will run on the types of microprocessors found in mobile phones.

It sounded like more might be happening than just putting pictures in order, so I tried to see if I could find any clues involving the intellectual property behind the company, with a trademark search and a patent search on their name. I came up with nothing. No patents assigned to Neven Vision, and no trademark in that name. At the time, their site was still working. A visit now yields the following message:

Thank you for your interest. Neven Vision was recently acquired by Google Inc. and Neven Vision product information is no longer available on this site. Click here to learn more.

But the site was up most of the day, and it did provide some helpful information. A search at the patent office on Hartmut Neven, one of the board members of Neven Vision, showed patents assigned to Nevengineering, Inc. A page on their site also listed a number of patents that they had been granted, and the numbers from those matched others that I found from the patent office. The oldest was originally filed back in 1996, and was followed by a number of others. The company it was originally assigned to was Eyematic Interfaces, Inc., but the patent had been reassigned to Nevenengineering in March of 2004. It seems that at some point in 2003, Eyematic Interfaces, Inc., transformed into Nevenengineering, Inc., with a focus that may have been more aimed at mobile technology.

I made a list of the patents I could find and some of the details about them in Google Acquires Neven Vision: Adding Object and Facial Recognition Mobile Technology.

While I was digging through the patents, a discussion started up at Google Blogoscoped on the purchase, and the news spread to GigaOm in Google Buys Photo Recognition Company, which both mention previous attempts by Google to purchase Riya, another recognition software company.

My friend Loren, over at Search Engine Journal, draws some other conclusions from other pages found on the Neven Vision site in Google, Neven Vision & Image Recognition. Loren ties together information from my patent post, what Liz Gannes at wrote at GigaOM, and from a number of other sources into a thoughtful analysis of what the acquisition may mean for Google in the future. And it's more than just organizing photos in Picassa.

Robin Good wrote a post on his blog at the end of July which shows an approach one image recognition company is taking in Visual Similarity Search Engine Finds Images According To Your Specs. What might we see from Google?

There are a lot of possibilities that become available with software that can recognize faces and objects. It will be interesting to see how Google might use some of the intellectual property and the expertise that they acquired with the folks from Neven Vision joining them. One of the newest patent applications published from Neven Vision, Image-based search engine for mobile phones with camera, lists some possibilities:

Image Based Searches
Optical Character Recognition with Language Translation
Mobile Advertising
Print-to-Internet
Payment System (using barcodes and labels)
Learning Tool for Children
Treasure Hunt Games
Virtual Annotation

Another, Image base inquiry system for search engines for mobile telephones with integrated camera, adds even more:

City and Museum Guides
Providing Product Information
Face Recognition
Product Part Replacement

Adding the ability to sort and search photos in Picassa is probably just the start of what we will see from this union.

Posted by Bill Slawski at 2:57 AM | Permalink

August 2, 2006

What Is 'Photosynth'? Microsofts's 3D Photo Mapping Tool

The first official project/product from Microsoft's Live Labs is called "Photosynth." What is it? It's hard to describe succinctly. It appears to be kind of mashup of things: photo sharing, visual search, mapping and 3-D.

To me, at least conceptually, it's pretty exciting. Here's a video overview from Microsoft. (The video is something of a commercial for Live Labs, but also showcases Photosynth as a very provocative product.)

Earlier this year I did a longish post on Google Earth as an alternative search/browsing paradigm: the "Geobrowser." Google and Microsoft are now in something of a mapping arms race that has little to do with consumer or advertiser demand. And Microsoft, notwithstanding Google Earth's impressive features and developer community, believes it has the edge.

To see what's really interesting about Photosynth and its implications one needs to step back. The Internet began as a text-based medium and is now becoming more and more visually rich. The growth of image search and the meteoric rise of online video are just two examples of this. Online, multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds like Second Life are other examples of emerging, visually immersive online environments.

People have difficulty imagining what search will look like five years from now. But it may in fact be that we collectively look back in a decade or so and see today's text-based search as a quaint precursor to a much more engaging and multi-dimensional search paradigm – literally in 3-D.

According to the video Photosynth was a collaboration among groups at Microsoft, including the Virtual Earth team. The crew at Virtual Earth wants to build a rich, "immersive" visual environment that ties the real and the online worlds together. (I blogged about Microsoft's vision for mapping here.)

Photosynth represents the merger of photosharing, community, search and 3-D mapping, with just a touch of gaming thrown in. Effectively it's an alternative web-search paradigm based on visual imagery. This type of approach doesn't replace the need for text-based search entirely but it could substitute for today's search in a substantial number of cases (especially for anything local or travel).

The vision of creating a "photorealistic" virtual world online is extremely ambitious. But ultimately I believe it's possible – and very exciting. The application will reportedly be available for download later this year.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 11:02 AM | Permalink

August 1, 2006

AOL Video To Launch New Video Portal

I received a press release yesterday from AOL, announcing the soon to launch new AOL Video portal at www.aolvideo.com, August 4th. What can you expect? More than "45 new video-on-demand content channels with thousands of hours of video programming from popular entertainment brands, organized and accessible via video search, browse or an interactive programming guide; free streaming content as well as the ability to purchase and download full-length content that can be viewed on multiple devices and PCs, online or offline; and access to millions of music videos, news clips, movie trailers, full length TV shows, and more."

Gary Price has a historical write up of AOL Video, check it out here.

Full Release:

AOL TO LAUNCH NEW VIDEO PORTAL

Includes More than 45 New Video Channels With Content >From Leading Entertainment Brands Including A&E Television Networks, MTV Networks, Turner Networks, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Many More

One-Stop Video Portal Has Innovative Programming Guide, Integrated Video Search and Browse, Easy Video Uploading and Sharing, Video Store and More

Open Platform Will Let AOL Extend AOL Video and Video Search to Multiple Platforms and Across the Web

DULLES, VA - July 31, 2006 - AOL, a leader in live and on-demand entertainment video programming and video search, today announced that it will preview a beta version of its new AOL Video portal later this week. Available for free to anyone on the Web at http://www.aolvideo.com, the new AOL Video is an all-in-one, high-quality entertainment destination to find, watch and share millions of the best videos across the Web.

New features on the AOL® Video portal include: over 45 new video-on-demand content channels with thousands of hours of video programming from popular entertainment brands, organized and accessible via video search, browse or an interactive programming guide; free streaming content as well as the ability to purchase and download full-length content that can be viewed on multiple devices and PCs, online or offline; and access to millions of music videos, news clips, movie trailers, full length TV shows, and more.

AOL Video also includes AOL® Video Search, which is based on industry leading video search technology from Truveo™ and Singingfish, and a video player that can go full screen without losing picture quality and that supports AOL's exclusive Hi-Q™ video format to watch DVD-quality videos online. In addition, the portal includes AOL's new UnCut Video offering, which makes it easy to upload and share videos online by providing full device support, letting consumers upload and share videos directly from their camcorder, Webcam, video-enabled mobile phone, as well as their PC.

"AOL has long been a leader in online video and with the new AOL Video portal we have created the best and easiest place online for anyone on the Web to find, watch and share the videos they're looking for," said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President of AOL. "From originally produced and licensed programming to branded online video-on-demand channels to user-created videos that people create, upload and share on the Web themselves, AOL Video is truly the first one-stop source that brings the best videos on the Web together in one place and gives consumers more choice. If a video is out there, you'll find it here on AOL Video.com." New Video-On-Demand Content Channels and Programming Guide

At the center of the AOL Video portal's main page will be one of the Web's first online interactive programming guides (IPG) that brings together free and download-to-own video content from across broadcast and cable television and the Web and organizes it into new, branded video-on-demand channels.

At launch, the AOL Video IPG will feature more than 45 video-on-demand channels, including many programmed by new video content partners, including: A&E Television Networks (including A&E® Network, The History Channel® and The Biography Channel®), Comedy Time, Endemol USA, Expo TV, LIME, MTV Networks (including COMEDY CENTRAL, Logo, MTV, MTV2, The N, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Spike TV and VH1), National Lampoon, Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc., ¡SORPRESA!, South Coast Golf, TBS, TNT, TotalVid, TV Guide, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Wild America and WNBA.

In addition, AOL and its joint venture partners program a variety of additional channels including: In2TV™, TMZ.com™, Lat34.com, AOL Uncut Video, AOL Music, AOL News, AOL Coaches, AOL Television, AOL Viral Videos, KOL and Moviefone. New video channels and programming from additional partners will be added on an ongoing basis. A complete list and descriptions of channels available at launch is included at the end of the press release.

Powerful Video Search

AOL's video search engine will be prominently featured on the new portal. AOL Video Search returns results from all of the most active video sources on the Internet, including YouTube, Yahoo! (Yahoo Music, Yahoo News, Yahoo Movies, etc.), Google Video, iFilm, AtomFilms and more. Powered by AOL's Truveo and Singingfish technologies, the AOL Video Search engine is also able to crawl and index high-quality videos on the Web that traditional search engines are unable to find. AOL's unique "Visual Crawling" capability automatically discovers video files and related information on complex, dynamic web pages - a task that is a challenge for conventional crawling technologies.

AOL Video Search also has significantly greater reach than any other video search engine on the Web. Through its network of search properties - which includes AOL Search, InfoSpace, Real, and others - AOL Video Search, branded and white-labeled, is available to more users than any other video search product.

Multi-Faceted Distribution Strategy Extends the AOL Video Experience

AOL Video is built on an open technology platform and architecture that will enable AOL to extend the AOL Video experience across platforms and devices to make it easy for users to watch it on multiple screens, including desktops, laptops, large screens (plasma), and handheld devices.

Earlier this year AOL and Intel Corporation announced a joint effort to extend a tailored version of the AOL Video experience to consumers' living rooms via Intel Viiv technology-based PCs. The companies plan to launch this new "10-foot" experience in the coming weeks, making the content easily viewable on large screen TVs and other devices.

This fall, AOL plans to make available Open APIs that will enable developers to incorporate AOL's leading Video Search results into third-party user experiences, as well as other tools that will enable developers and consumers to incorporate features from the AOL Video portal for other websites. In addition, AOL is working with PC OEMs and broadband service providers to develop co-branded versions of the AOL Video portal.

The launch of the new AOL Video.com is another example of how AOL has been building upon its online video and video search strategy, including making key acquisitions. Over the last year, these initiatives have included:

- The record-breaking global broadcast online of the "Live 8" concerts; - Last year's launch of its innovative Video Hub destination on AOL.com; - The launch of high-quality video playback through AOL's exclusive Hi-Q™ video format -- AOL.com was the first major portal to offer high-/DVD-quality videos; - Landmark content and original programming agreements that exemplify how AOL is creating a new model for television distribution, such as the Warner Bros. "In2TV" offering, the first on-demand Broadband Television Network with the largest collection of free TV programming anywhere on the Web; - The launch of TMZ.com, the AOL-Telepictures new, on-demand entertainment news network; - AOL's acquisition of the two foremost video search companies; Truveo in December 2005, a complement to the acquisition of Singingfish in 2003; - A growing index of several million videos, including the most comprehensive coverage of some of the highest quality and most popular video on the Web; - AOL's investment in and partnership with Brightcove, a Web video distribution pioneer; and - AOL's acquisition of Lightningcast, a broadband video advertising innovator.

Availability

The enhanced AOL Video portal (http://www.aolvideo.com) will be available for beta testing starting later this week. For more information on the beta test and to sign up for an alert to be automatically notified when the beta test is available, please visit http://www.aolvideo.com, or AOL Beta Central at http://beta.aol.com.

About AOL

AOL and its subsidiaries operate a leading network of Web brands and the largest Internet access subscription service in the United States. Web brands include the AOL.com® website, AIM®, MapQuest® and Netscape®. AOL offers a range of digital services in the areas of education, safety and security, communications and music. The company also has operations in Europe and Canada. AOL LLC is a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. and is based in Dulles, Virginia.

Contact Information Jaymelina Esmele AOL (703) 265-7831

Note: For free video and additional information regarding AOL Video, please log onto www.thenewsmarket.com/aol to make requests. You can receive broadcast-standard video digitally or by tape from this site. Registration and video is free to the media.

=======================

AOLVideo.com New Content Partners & Video-On-Demand Channel Line-Up As of July 31, 2006, in alphabetical order The AOL Video portal will bring together free and download-to-own video programming from content partners across broadcast and cable television and the Web, organized it into new, branded video-on-demand channels

Channels Programmed by Leading Partners:

- A&E Television Networks - From A&E Television Networks' bouquet of channels, programming from A&E Network, The Biography Channel and The History Channel.

- A&E Network - Popular, full length programs real-life and lifestyle series such as “Inked,” “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” “Criss Angel Mindfreak” and “Flip This House.”

- The Biography Channel - Programs that showcase compelling stories about the world's most interesting people in categories including American Icons, Pop Culture & Entertainment, Notorious, Real West and Mysteries of the Bible.

- The History Channel - Documentaries, series and specials about everything from ancient history to military history, technology and more, including “Digging for the Truth,” “Modern Marvels” and “Decoding the Past.” - Comedy Time - Everything from stand-up comedy and man on the street segments to original, short-form programs. Stand-up categories include Urban, Latino, Observational, Relationship, Family and Alternative.

- Expo TV - Product reviews and demonstrations from experts and viewers on a variety of topics including cars, electronics, home and kitchen appliances, parenting gear and much more.

- LIME - Videos for those seeking a healthier, greener, more balanced lifestyle including videos from popular Lime television series and documentaries as well as extensive online content from lime.com.

- MTV Networks - MTV Networks' full array of entertainment, comedy and music programming from its COMEDY CENTRAL, Logo, MTV, MTV2, The N, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Spike TV and VH1 brands is available for paid download, including: - COMEDY CENTRAL – Cutting-edge comedy including full-length episodes of “Chappelle's Show,” the Emmy-award winning “South Park,” “Reno 911!,” “Crank Yankers” and “Mind of Mencia.” - Logo – Original shows and specials for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) audience including “Noah's Arc,” and “Open Bar,” as well as “Real Momentum” documentaries - The N –Award-winning and original TV shows reflecting the real-life issues teens face every day, including “Degrassi,” “South of Nowhere,” “O'Grady,” “Beyond the Break and Whistler.” - Nickelodeon – A vast library of shows from the number-one entertainment brand for kids including “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Zoey 101,” “The Fairly OddParents,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” and many more. - Nick Jr. – Full-length episodes of preschoolers' favorites including “Dora the Explorer,” and “Blue's Clues.”

- Nick at Nite – “Fatherhood,” the animated comedy series based on Bill Cosby's best-selling book of the same name, and “Hi-Jinks,” hit hidden-camera series where adults play good-natured pranks on kids of all ages. - MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION – Hundreds of episodes including the hit series “Laguna Beach,” “Punk'd,” “My Super Sweet Sixteen,” “Viva La Bam,” “Wildboyz,” “Pimp My Ride,” “The Real World,” and many others. - MTV2 – Compelling and irreverent series such as “Andy Milonakis,” “Chico & Guapo,” “Celebrity Death Match” and “WonderShowzen.” - Spike TV – Series geared to helping men Get More Action, such as “Disorderly Conduct,” “TNA: iMPACT!” “Muscle Car” and others.

- TV Land – “Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg,” hosted by legendary comedian, producer and director David Steinberg, is a one-on-one comedy forum where celebrated performers including Larry David, Martin Short, Bob Newhart, Jon Lovitz and George Lopez open up about their personal lives. - VH1 – A wide array of VH1's hit Celebreality series such as “Flavor of Love,” “Hogan Knows Best,” “The Surreal Life,” “Breaking Bonaduce,” “My Fair Brady” and others. - National Lampoon – An all-new Internet video channel from the biggest name in comedy. It's everything you expect from National Lampoon (AMEX:NLN) -- smart, edgy, funny, irreverent, impolite and definitely NOT PC -- and more! All original, all new and all created for the digital world. - Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc. - The company that put the “soap” in soap operas presents the P&G Classic Soaps channel, featuring episodes from “Another World,” “The Edge of Night,” “Search for Tomorrow” and “Texas,” including some available for the first time since they ended their successful runs. In addition, this channel offers original companion content for the contemporary classics “As The World Turns” and “Guiding Light.”

- ¡SORPRESA! - Spanish-language children's programming including "Tienda MÃ¡gica," "Cachureos," and "El Planeta de Remi."

- South Coast Golf - Golf lessons from "Hall of Fame" PGA Tour professionals including Dave Stockton, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and many others. - TBS – A collection of clips from TBS's top-notch line-up of comedy series, stand-up comedy from the Laugh Factory and the Aspen Comedy Festival, award-winning Department of Humor Analysis shorts and much more. - TNT – TNT original movies, plus special behind-the-scenes extras and interviews from TNT's hit original series "The Closer," "Saved" and "Nightmares and Dreamscapes: >From the Stories of Stephen King." - TotalVid.com – Video clips covering a variety of enthusiast, educational, and instructional categories, including alternative sports, cooking, home improvement, martial arts, outdoors, self defense, sports instruction and travel.

- TV Guide for Broadband – Videos that offer the inside track on entertainment information including celebrity interviews, music videos, and original programs like “InFANity,” which offers behind the scenes footage from TV's top shows, and “Square Off,” an inside look at the TV industry with hosts Brian Lowry (Variety) and Andy Wallenstein (The Hollywood Reporter). - Warner Bros. Entertainment - Full length episodes of "Dukes of Hazzard," "Babylon 5," sketches from "MADtv" and animated shows including "The Flintstones" and "The Jetsons." - Wild America - The world's largest film library covering the wildlife and nature of North America.

- WNBA - Coverage of the WNBA's best and brightest games and moments.

Channels Programmed by AOL:

- AOL UnCut Video - Home videos, comedic clips and other footage created by consumers.

- AOL Music - Thousands of music videos, exclusive intimate performances, live concerts and hours of artist interviews.

- AOL News - Hundreds of stories and live breaking news from the AP, Reuters, Extra, ABC, CNN and CBS.

- AOL Coaches - A digest of the best advice, tips, and tools from the leading experts in diet, fitness, wellness, romance, family and money.

- AOL Viral Videos - A collection of the funniest and most popular clips that everyone is sending around the Web.

- KOL - Original animated shows including "Princess Natasha" and "Pilar's Adventures" as well as "KOL's Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party on CBS" show clips, Radio KOL videos and KOL Celebrity Videos.

- Moviefone - Thousands of movie trailers, extended film clips, and "Unscripted," Moviefone.com's original Web series in which today's biggest stars and filmmakers interview each other using their own questions and those submitted by fans.

Channels Programmed by AOL and Its Joint Venture Partners:

- In2TV - The following In2TV channels feature hundreds of full length episodes of popular television series including: - Dramarama TV - Great dramatic series like "Eight is Enough," "Falcon Crest," "Sisters," "Spenser: for Hire," and "Scarecrow and Mrs. King." - Get Real TV - Favorite game show, courtroom and relationship shows such as "Elimidate," "Change of Heart," "The People's Court," "The Moral Court," and "The Will." - Gone But Not Forgotten TV - Critically acclaimed, but prematurely canceled series like "Against the Grain," "Presidio Med," "Wanda at Large," "The George Carlin Show," "Max Headroom," and "Jesse." - Heroes & Horror TV - Sci-fi and horror series including "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," "Babylon 5," "Freddy's Nightmares" and "The Adventures of Wonder Woman." - In2TV en Espanol - This Spanish language version of In2TV features over two dozen popular television series in Spanish that have previously only been seen in their original English broadcast format. - LOL TV - Laugh out loud with comedy favorites like "Welcome Back Kotter," "Chico and the Man," "Perfect Strangers," "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper," and "Head of the Class." - Superman TV - The Man of Steel soars throughout this channel in a documentary film, comic book animation, and television series including the original "The Adventures of Superman," "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," and "Superboy." - Toontopia TV - Top-rated animation comes to life with "Pinky and the Brain," "Beetlejuice," "Freakazoid," "Histeria!," and "The New Adventures of Batman." - Vintage TV - Classics like "Growing Pains," "Alice," "F Troop," "Maverick," and "The F.B.I." - What a Rush TV - Action-adventure favorites such as "Kung Fu," "La Femme Nikita," "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," "The Fugitive," "Dark Justice," and more. - Lat34.com - Dynamic and timely video coverage of action sports wherever they occur.

- TMZ.com - Exclusive breaking news and video from the world of entertainment and celebrities.

# # #

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:10 AM | Permalink

July 21, 2006

More 3D Maps, an iTunes Video Podcast Directory, .CA Goes Mobile & Wildfires Database: Specialty Search Wrap Up

This weeks specialty search wrap up from Resource Shelf includes more 3D mapping tools, a iTunes video podcast directory, the Canadian government mobile edition, a resource for locating primary sources with international news and a wildfires and forest fire real time database.

Loving 3D satellite mapping tools? Want to spot more North Korean Missiles & Chinese Helicopters? Gary posted a roundup of free open source 3D satellite and aerial imagery. You can even check out images of places outside of this world, seriously! More details at Resource Shelf.
Like to watch videos on your iPod or on iTunes? Well, Gary has the details on Search For Video adding a method of searching for videos that can be downloaded directly to your iPod and iTunes. To view the directory listing of these videos go to Podcast Video portion of the directory. More details here.
Oh Canada on your mobile phone! Do you have a love for the Canadian government? Are you on the road a lot? If so, you can now get your fix at the Mobile Canada Site. You can learn more at http://canada.gc.ca/mobile/wireless_e.html or at Resource Shelf.
Do you hate getting your international news via second hand sources? Gary writes about Diplomacy Monitor, a site that gives you access to "primary documents and news releases from various governments and government agencies."
Is your house burning down? I hope not! This is the season for wildfires and forest fire and Gary has compiled a listings of database that offer real time information and reports. Check them out at Resource Shelf.

That is our specialty search roundup for this week.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:12 AM | Permalink

July 17, 2006

Find Great Podcasts

Podcasts are a very good way of keeping up to date with what is going on, they're entertaining, you can play them in the background while you're doing other things - but have you ever tried to find them? Quite frankly, it's been pretty messy and not a lot of fun. However the article "Find great podcasts" is a very useful summary of podcast search engines, directories, and other resources. The comments also provide a useful collection of resources that can be used to find that elusive podcast.

Posted by Phil Bradley at 9:49 AM | Permalink

July 12, 2006

Google Video Launches In UK & Other Countries

Silicon reports that Google Video has launched a localized version in the UK at http://video.google.co.uk/. There are also localized versions in Canada, Deutschland, España, France, Italia, Nederland, and Polska.

Google's Joanna Shields, said in a statement: "By launching Google Video in these new markets we will enable more people in more countries to search for, upload and share video content in more languages."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 12:43 PM | Permalink

July 7, 2006

AOL Podcast Search Beta Live

TVEyes' podcast search engine Podscope.com has been launched as a service on AOL Search in beta. You can access the AOL Podcast Beta Search after accepting the license agreement, you will then be directed to http://podcast.search.aol.com/.

A search will provide a method to listen to podcast excerpts with a link to hear the whole podcast. You can submit your podcast to AOL here. You can also learn more about AOL Podcast Search beta here.

AOL and TVEyes entered into an agreement to offer the service back in September 2005.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:55 AM | Permalink

June 27, 2006

Image Database To Fight Online Child Porn

The AP reports that AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, EarthLink, NetZero and Juno are teaming up to fight child pornography. They are pooling together $1 million to build a database of pornographic images of children and software to match the image database with similar matches on their own networks. So Yahoo may scan email attachments, Yahoo Groups images and other places in the Yahoo network where images may be. If any of the images match an image in the database, it can be flagged and sent to the authorities. The exact details of the software and how it will be used have not yet been decided.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:47 AM | Permalink

June 23, 2006

PhotoBucket Has 44% Share of Photo Sharing Sites: Beating Yahoo & Flickr

The Hitwise blog posted what I found to be surprising statistics on what is the most popular photo sharing site. I would have thought Yahoo Photos or Flickr would be a one of the most popular services, but it looks like PhotoBucket has almost 44% of the share, compared with Yahoo Photos with only 18% share in the number two spot. Even more surprising, to me at least, is that Flickr has barely 6% share, ranking number six in the list. Hitwise tells me that Photobucket surpassed Yahoo! Photos in January 2006, and its share of visits increased by 34% in the four months from February 2006 to May 2006. Flickr increased 44% in the past four months, which explains why I thought Flickr was more popular then its current rank. More details at the Hitwise blog.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 11:10 AM | Permalink

June 22, 2006

Video Search, Smut and Censorship

Earlier this week, ZDNet News published an article discussing the presence and availability of explicit content on video search sites like, YouTube, Yahoo Video and Google Video. "A weeklong review of some of the top user-generated video sites by CNET News.com unearthed scenes of beheadings, masturbation, bloody car accidents, bondage and sadomasochism," wrote the reporter, Greg Sandoval. He did say that this review found no child pornography.

There are a number of issues that the article directly and indirectly raises. (I spoke to Sandoval during his interview process.) Perhaps the primary issue for marketers and the video sites that want their ad dollars is a practical one. There has been considerable press and discussion about the reluctance of mainstream brands to associate themselves with user-generated video content that they can't control. And there have been celebrated cases, for example on MTV-owned iFilm, where "run of site" video ads for mainstream brands have appeared as pre-roll in front of adult content.

To attract more advertising and address this criticism and the hesitation from marketers, MySpace, for example, has recently created "safe content areas" ? safe for marketers that is ? where no questionable content appears. Companies are chomping at the bit to reach the massive MySpace audience but do not want their brands associated or juxtaposed with violent, pornographic or otherwise questionable content.

As of today, Google is testing advertising on premium video content but doesn't offer it where user-generated content is involved (to address this same issue).

It's not completely fair to lump all sites together. Not all video search sites have the same range and types of content and, again to be fair, on those video sites where adult content is available, it's typically behind a warning or "safe search" filter. But those filters can be easily changed. And, somewhat shockingly, violent content (e.g., beheadings) is not similarly gated.

Video sites need to determine whether and how to treat explicit or "over 18" content in terms of the advertiser proposition. But beyond this, there are practical "enforcement" issues as well. If you've many thousands of videos coming into your site on a daily basis, like YouTube, there's time and cost involved in mounting an effort to screen all those videos before they're posted. One approach would be to monitor the tags and flag those streams that indicated questionable content for later human editorial review.

The simple approach, of course, would be to simply ban all "non-family friendly" content and thus create a video site that was safe for advertisers and kids. But then there's that little thing called the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

All pornography is not illegal; child pornography is. Yet pornography is offensive to many people. However, the discussion of what constitutes "pornography" takes us down a complicated and winding path that invariably invokes U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous 1964 quote in Jacobellis v. Ohio about the difficulty of defining pornography in the abstract: "I know it when I see it."

As a parent I'm not eager for my two young daughters to discover explicit content online when they years from now simply, out of curiosity, start entering sexually oriented words in a search box or video site. (I did the quaint equivalent as a kid in middle school looking up "sex words" in the dictionary.) But as a former lawyer with sensitivity to the complexity of questions of censorship and free expression I recognize that there's a practical and philosophical quagmire for Google, Yahoo and others around whether to show adult and other non-mainstream content on video sites. It's somewhat analogous to the question of whether to go into China and participate in the censorship of websites.

If you start "banning videos" what do you allow and what do you omit? Do you allow violence but not sex ? I just as equally would like to protect my daughters from beheading scenes. Do you allow sexual content but not extreme violence? Beheading videos from Al Qaeda are arguably "news content." And if you permit nudity, where is the line?

Monitoring and making judgments about the content of videos is not unlike the challenge of monitoring trademark infringement within paid search advertising: difficult, time consuming and inherently flawed.

I'm not suggesting there is no line and no limits but Google, YouTube, AOL, Yahoo and others need to find that line carefully, balancing the competing interests (legal, philosophical, financial) that weigh on this cluster of issues. I certainly don't have the answer and right now, apparently, neither do they.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 7:28 PM | Permalink

June 16, 2006

Riya To Expand Into Web Image Search

SiliconBeat reports that Riya will expand to a web image search service. Currently, Riya allows you to upload a photo, define the photo as matching a particular person and then it tries to scan other photos to figure out if other photos in your collecton match that person, using face recognition. Riya is expanding that to match images of almost anything on the web. In other words, if I am looking to buy a big blue pineapple chair (love that chair) and I have an image of the one I like, Riya will scan the web for similar images of big blue pineapple chairs. Riya expects to be able to crawl the entire web and index the images they find within about three month timespan. Additional coverage of Riya's expansion can be read at TechCrunch.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:29 AM | Permalink

June 8, 2006

Yahoo Photos Upgraded, Beta Available

TechCrunch has a good writeup on the new Yahoo Photos beta. To access the beta go to http://photos.yahoo.com/ and after you sign in, you may see a "try the new beta" link, click on that. I personally do not see it, so I will base my notes after TechCrunch's coverage.

New Features Include: + AJAX functionality to drag and drop photos + Taggings and sets from Flickr + Free uploading, unlimited + Also point and click tag editing + "Smart Albums" which creates albums by ratings, tags, date, etc.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:22 AM | Permalink

June 1, 2006

Yahoo Video Allows Uploads & Sharing

Yahoo Video, previously offering content found only by crawling the web, now has changed to also allow uploads from content owners, similar to services that YouTube and Google Video offer. I'm away at our SES London show, so I can't take a longer look at the service now. Instead, TechCrunch has a short review here and the press release is below. TechCrunch is disappointed that the product isn't integrated into Flickr. Putting video into Flickr is something that Yahoo's debating, they told me when I talked with them about upcoming changes last month. However, there's a concern that it might change the style or usage of Flickr too much and remains something the company is examining and debating. So stay tuned. The press release:

Yahoo! Debuts Next Generation Video Experience

Yahoo! Video combines search, upload and community, enabling publishers to be discovered by users everywhere in the world of online video

SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 1, 2006 - Yahoo! Inc., (Nasdaq: YHOO) a leading global Internet company, today introduced Yahoo! Video (http://video.yahoo.com), an online video destination that combines the power of Yahoo! Search with new upload, browse and community features. These new services, coupled with Yahoo!?s extensive and highly engaged global audience, uniquely position Yahoo! to deliver a comprehensive, entertaining online video experience to users and an unparalleled distribution platform to video publishers.

?As the video space continues to emerge, our strengths in search, content, personalization and community make it possible for Yahoo! to offer a highly engaging video experience for both users and publishers,? said Jason Zajac, general manager of social media. ?Yahoo! Video makes it easy for users to discover high quality content, while video creators can be discovered by the Web?s largest global audience.?

Yahoo! Video allows users to access the most popular and relevant videos on the Internet including Lazy Ramadi, The Glomp, and the latest Shakira music video. It brings together content in more ways than any other video Web site by crawling the Web, accepting uploads, receiving direct feeds from partners, and leveraging the Yahoo! Media Group?s unique content and industry relationships. As a leader in online video, Yahoo! already hosts and serves hundreds of millions of music, news, sports, movies, and television videos per month. Now, Yahoo! Video combines these assets with content from across the Web and directly from publishers, enabling users to determine what videos are most important to them:

? Featured, Popular, Category and Tag sections enable users to easily browse for videos.

? Users can subscribe to and watch channels, groups of videos related by source or topic, to stay current on content from their favorite publishers.

? Users can access the largest database of videos on the Web through Yahoo! Search

Additionally, Yahoo! Video enables users and video enthusiasts to participate in an active social community by rating, reviewing and sharing videos. Users can save videos to a ?My Favorites? section and then tag them, making retrieval easier. Friends can share content via Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger. In addition, users can also share uploaded videos by embedding a version of a Yahoo! Video player with the video of their choice into their Web site or blog for the world to see.

Yahoo! offers video publishers the opportunity to be discovered by millions. Yahoo! Video empowers publishers with free tools and a platform to distribute their content and to create both individual identity and shared communities around video. Publishers can:

? Upload videos to Yahoo! Video, manage content, and track views and ratings through ?MyStudio?

? Build a publisher profile, create channels and establish an identity for the Web to discover

? Potentially have their videos featured on Yahoo! Video, within a Yahoo! property, or on the Yahoo! Homepage

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! seeks to provide online products and services essential to users' lives, and offers a full range of tools and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users around the world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:36 AM | Permalink

May 25, 2006

YouTube Dominant In Video Search, Now an Acquisition Target?

The short answer is "yes." The site -- shall we call it the "MySpace" of video :) -- is now the dominant destination for online video search, according to a press release out today from Hitwise. YouTube has an almost 50% market share.

Here's the traffic breakdown:

YouTube ? 42.94%
MySpace Videos ? 24.22%
Yahoo! Video Search ? 9.58%
MSN Video Search ? 9.21%
Google Video Search ? 6.48%
AOL Video ? 4.28%
iFilm (owned by MTV/Viacom) ? 2.28%

Perhaps then we should call it the "Google of video"? (Google video is #5.) It doesn't really matter what analogy one uses, YouTube is going to be bought by one of the big players, or rather they will attempt to buy it. The stakes (and potential, future revenues) are just too high in this rapidly developing arena.

You can read more on my blog.

Also, Hitwise has some trending charts on video search and page views in YouTube vs. MySpace Video - Comparing Visits and Page Views.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 1:06 PM | Permalink

May 23, 2006

Show Me More Pictures Like This One...

Image search can be frustrating, because search engines can't "see" pictures in the same way that they can "read" text—indeed, image search involves a lot of guesswork on the part of the engines. Experimental image search services are trying to overcome the inherent challenges with image retrieval by allowing you to use a reference image as a starting point to find similar images based on color, texture and so on. More on two of these services in today's SearchDay article, Searching for Images by Similarity.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 3:32 AM | Permalink

April 17, 2006

Finding Public Radio Podcasts

Gary Price reports on Public Radio Fan's podcast directory with over 650 currently active podcasts from public radio stations around the world. You can sort by category, by name, or by source - there seems to be about 35 different podcast categories listed.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:26 AM | Permalink

April 14, 2006

Microsoft's Search By Camera Phone Research Project

Microsoft's Camera Phone Search Project and Other Camera Phone Search Tech from ResourceShelf covers a new Microsoft Research project allowing you to take pictures of things in order to get search results back about it.

Snap something with your camera phone, then that goes into an image search database, which identifies the object or type of object in order to run other types of searches about it. Or that's the idea. You can't try it yet, and Microsoft isn't even certain what they may do with it.

How about searching by taking pictures of bar codes? Completely different idea than this project, but thanks for asking! The ResourceShelf post gives you resources on the whole Amazon bar code searching in Japan thing, for the curious. And Frucall, mentioned yesterday by Brian, deals with bar code searching as well. The downside is you have to key in the numbers.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:31 AM | Permalink

April 5, 2006

Pixsy Visual Search Uses RSS To Power Image Search Index

Stefanie Olsen of News.com reports on Pixsy's launch of visual search at http://www.pixsy.com/. So what makes Pixsy unique? Well, it burns through RSS feeds to generate an image index of fresh and keyword relevant pictures and videos. Take a search on red flowers as an example; it uses this AJAX technology to show you details, on-click, of the image including the keywords associated with the image, the date/time/location it was indexed, the "context" it came from and the source, and a link to the source. Gary Price also has a write up on Pixsy here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:40 AM | Permalink

March 23, 2006

Some New Video Search & Sharing Sites

Searchforvideo is a relatively new web-wide video search site you might want to check out, while Guba and VideoEgg are two other video sites that will be of interest to those who want to share video or see what others have contributed. More details below:

Searchforvideo allows you to keyword search for video content from across the web. You can subscribe to RSS feeds of your searches, so you can be updated when new content matching your query is found. You can also browse subjects by topic, as listed above the search box on the home page. Got your own video content you want included? Submit your feed here.

Guba, which has allowed you to locate video posted to Usenet, has now opened an uploading service. Similar to YouTube or Google Video, you can upload your own content, then others can search through what's been contributed. Uploaded video is converted to Flash, iPod and PSP formats. While part of Guba is a subscription-based service, searching and viewing uploaded content is supposed to be free.

VideoEgg is similar to Guba, in that you can upload and share video. SiliconBeat notes that the service is now allowing publishers to upload content in a variety of formats, where it can be hosted and then played back on their own sites. Unfortunately, there's no way to search through VideoEgg-hosted content at the moment, that I can see.

Postscript: Actually, Searchforvideo's been out since October, but the RSS feeds are apparently a new feature.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:46 PM | Permalink

March 14, 2006

Microsoft to Launch Video Service Under Windows Live Video

TechWeb reports that Microsoft is going to launch a video service to challenge Google Video during April of this year. The service is most likely going to be named "Windows Live Video", like all the new Windows Live This or Windows Live That type of services they announced. MSN currently has live video streams of "variety of news, entertainment and sports from content partners." This new service, I would venture, would be more like upload your video and share it with friends. Expect a tight integration with MSN's other services, in particular MSN Spaces.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:33 AM | Permalink

February 20, 2006

Updated AOL Video Coming; Free Classic TV Shows Come Later

Sometime this week, AOL Video is to begin making use of the Truveo video search engine that AOL purchased in December and offer "AOL Hi-Q Videos," content which is said to be of DVD quality. USA Today also reports that next month, some classic Warner Bros. TV shows such as Welcome Back Kotter, Kung Fu and Battlestar Galactica (TOS - The Old Series) will be available for free. Looking today, AOL Video doesn't appear to have shifted over. Here's what AOL says to expect"

The key features of the new AOL Video Search will include a more streamlined presentation of search results, the inclusion of AOL Hi-Q Videos (DVD-quality) in the video index, and the integration of video search technology from Truveo, a company AOL acquired in December 2005. We're also continuing to refine the relevancy and recency of results and will make enhancements on an on-going basis.

Over the past two years, Truveo has pioneered a new technology called "Visual Crawling" for finding video on the Web. With this technology, our search engine can now find and index all of the great high-quality video on the Web that traditional search engines have never been able to find. The 1.8 million videos indexed through Truveo, expand our existing archive of 20,000+ original and licensed videos, and the 2.5 million videos from the Web indexed through Singingfish.

We believe the integration of Truveo's powerful technology will firmly establish AOL Video Search as the go-to destination to find and discover online video content. As the amount of video content available on the Web explodes and as users continue to consume online videos at a record pace, AOL Video Search will continually evolve to meet the growing needs of online consumers.

Postscript by Barry Schwartz: Gary Price posted an entry back in November named AOL High Quality Video Downloads, AOL Triton IM Gets Search Box & Sharing MSNBC Articles Via MSN Messenger which is highly related to Danny's update above.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:59 PM | Permalink

February 13, 2006

Searching for Music on Satellite Radio

Gary Price has an excellent post named Searching for Music on Satellite Radio OR What's the Name of that Tune? In that post he writes about two databases where you can locate what songs are currently playing on satellite radio channels and search on past music tracks.

The first database Gary lists is named XMFan.com and the second is SiriusBackstage.com.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:53 AM | Permalink

February 9, 2006

Yahoo Launches Audio Search in UK

Netimperative reports Yahoo! debuts audio search in UK. You can view the Yahoo Audio Search for the UK & Ireland by clicking here. This enables the searching of "Popular and hard to find music", "Podcasts", "Interviews, speeches and newscasts", "Stand-up comedy", and "Sound Effects." More information at Yahoo Audio Search UK learn more page or the FAQs.

Gary covered the news when Yahoo first released Audio search for Yahoo.com on Aug. 4, 2005.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 2:34 PM | Permalink

February 2, 2006

Gracenote: The Music Info Database You've Used But Possibly Know Little About

The International Herald Tribune article: The End User: Sounding new notes, offers a brief but interesting profile of a music information database that you've likely tapped when you enter a CD into a CD player or download a track. The database comes from a California company named Gracenote. For example, one of the services they provide is the song/track data when you're CD player says it's accessing the CDDB which now goes by the name, Gracenote Media Database.

From the article: The company, based in Emeryville, California, is eight years old, but it has come of age only in the recent explosion of digital music. Jim Hollingsworth, senior vice president, said the company doubled its business last year alone. At last count, 150 million individuals worldwide had used the service, for a total of about six billion database searches.

Most of Gracenote's revenue comes by licensing access to its database and a growing number of other services to many online music services and hardware providers.

Gracenote sells its database not to consumers but to businesses. Its clients include software makers like Apple Computer and RealNetworks, consumer electronics companies like Sony and Panasonic and car companies like Toyota and Honda. This year, it is pushing into the mobile phone area.

iTunes and Yahoo Music Engine are some of the other services utilizing Gracenote technology and database. Gracenote has also been awarded several US patents.

The Database Itself + Info about 55 million tracks and over 4 million CDs, Users in Over 200 Countries and Territories, 8 million audio waveform fingerprints, 17 thousand DVD titles.

+ Data comes from "music afficianados" who enter track and CD info along with info provided directly by music labels.

Other Services The article also talks about new Gracenote services like Gracenote Playlist that helps a listener find "related" tracks based on categorization metadata (over 200 categories) that is cataloged with each track. Then in some situations the consumer is provided with a link to purchase the track.

Another service coming soon is called Gracenote Discover that will offer recommendations about specific tracks, albums, and artists.

In a phased roll-out, Discover will generate recommendations based on the integration of three different types of analysis: music expert editorial, audio attributes derived from digital signal processing (DSP) and community-based preferences.

Another music recommendation service leveraging metadata created by music experts (and a service I'm addicted to) is Pandora. It's in beta right now and something that IMHO is more than worth a look and listen. Highly addictive. For more of a "community approach" to music recommendations, Last.fm is one of the many services doing this type of thing.

Gracenote also offers voice-controlled navigation, streaming audio recognition that aimed at the mobile market since more and more music is becoming accessible via live streams direct to mobile phones and devices. For example, I use software called Pocket-Tunes that allows me to stream to my Treo any station that offers an MP3 stream. For example, all Shoutcast stations offer MP3 streams.

Free Search Services on the Gracenote Web Site Gracenote offers a free and basic track info database on its public web site. You can also find their Digital Top Ten index that provides a list (updated weekly) that represents, "most played albums on the Internet, aggregated weekly for almost 30 million listeners worldwide using Gracenote Media Recognition Service."

A basic search on the Gracenote web site database allows you to search by: + Artist + Album + Song

Here's what an artist entry looks like for Green Day and their American Idiot album. Note that some tracks have direct links to purchase the song on iTunes.

Of course, other music info databases (that likely license Gracenote data) like Yahoo Audio Search, Google Music Search, and Allmusic.com offer a variety of music info and much more. GoFish offers a lyrics search tool. An AJ "Smart Answer" combines info and links from various sources into a single location.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:09 PM | Permalink

February 1, 2006

MeeVee Gets TV Search Patents

MeeVee, which allows you to search through television listings, has gained two patents related to TV search. The patents -- 6,651,253 and 6,973,665 -- cover how MeeVee tags video content with meta data and searching through the meta data to find TV programs and content segments. The company plans a formal press announcement on the news next week. For more on MeeVee, see our past post.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:32 AM | Permalink

Yahoo and MSN to Offer Video Archive of Super Bowl TV Commercials

For many people tuning into the Super Bowl (aka "the Big Game") is not about watching a football game, American football that is, but rather viewing the commercials. Every year several sites make those commercials available online and this year will be no different. We've learned that Yahoo, in cooperation with IFILM, will offer an archive of this year's commercials on Yahoo Video shortly after the game ends on Sunday evening.

You'll also be able to watch commercials from past "Big Games."

IFILM content can currently searched via Yahoo Video and BlinkxTV as well as their own site.

Postscript: Microsoft has informed us that they will also provide an archive of Super Bowl commercials on MSN Video.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:04 AM | Permalink

January 29, 2006

Amazon.com Considering Video Download Service to Compete With Google Video Store and Others

Both Variety and Red Herring report that Google Video Store, iTunes, and other video download services might have some new competition coming from Amazon.com sometime this Spring.

From Red Herring: Amazon is in talks with various studios, such as Image Entertainment, Ardustry Home Entertainment, and First Look Entertainment, to get digital content for the service, the report said. It will launch the service with at least two major names as partners. ?They?re moving towards digital downloadable merchandise,? said Patti Freeman Evans, an analyst with JupiterResearch, who?s heard talk about the service. ?This seems like a natural extension.?

From Variety One supplier explained that an Amazon customer could stream a digital copy of a film for a fee and apply that charge as a credit toward the eventual purchase of the DVD. Another plan is for a customer to buy a DVD; while waiting for it to arrive, he could stream the content over his computer.

Amazon.com already offers some music downloads and recently a Bear Stearns analyst said that a Google Music service might be coming. I've also speculated on music as being a service that Google might offer. Yahoo already offers music downloads via Yahoo Music. Red Herring also has a story on a Google music download service.

Amazon.com has also said that they plan to offer a e-book download service partnering with Random House and other publishers. They already offer some e-books and documents for purchase and downloading.

Earlier this month we blogged about Google considering an e-book store

Finally, Amazon.com also offers their "Search Inside the Book" (SITB) program, now available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada and Japan that gives consumers the opportunity to keyword search book content and then view a pre-determined amount of that book online along with, in some cases, interesting stats. This post has some quotes from Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, on Search Inside the Book.

SITB is similar in many ways to what Google offers in partnership with publishers via Google Book Search (GBS).

Google's Library Project (to digitize materials founnd in five large libraries and then offer snippets from that material) is a part of the complete GBS program.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:45 PM | Permalink

January 28, 2006

New Search Service from TVEyes Offers Free Keyword Search Of Some Web-Based TV News Content & Lots More Video Search

A new free service from multimedia search engine TVEyes allows a searcher to keyword search each and every word spoken during tv news segment from well-known news organizations. TVEyes is utilzing voice recognition technology to create a "Spoken Word Index" that makes these programs keyword searchable.

In this post, we'll take a look at what's new from TVEyes, discuss their fee-based service, look at Podscope (also from TVEyes), and look at some of the many services and companies that offer various forms of audio and video search services and technology.

Free: TV News Webcast Keyword Search TVEyes is introducing a new free service that allows searchers to keyword search every word spoken on news segments and newscasts from well-known news organizations.

You'll find the search box on the TVEyes home page. Again, this is free service. The login on the right side of the page is for their fee-based (aka professional) service. More on that in a moment. I didn't spot an actual text transcript next to each clip but a box with direct link(s) to the snippet(s) where your search terms words are spoken is clearly visible. The text next to most entries is clip summary info.

Searching is simple and straightforward. Enter your keywords and go. Results can be sorted by relevance or data. A spokesperson told me that the database is constantly updates. Don't forget that the words your searching are generated for the database using voice recognition technology. It's far from perfect technology (independent of provider) but it's improving all of the time. However, don't be surprised if you find errors.

Where does the content come from? You'll can view (or soon view) material from:

FoxNews.com
CNN.com
MSNBC.com
CBSnews.com
Reuters.com
News.BBC.co.uk

The service is just getting up to speed and when I tested it this evening and I didn't spot material from several of these sources. I think giving them a bit more to get the service up and running would be fair before really kicking the tires. Note: On Friday night I did experience a few times when the service was unavailable. Very likely an issue with the service just coming online.

Again, you're able to keyword search content that's made available on the open web. Not every segment from every news program is placed on the web. Also, most of these sources are available via other sites.

What TVEyes brings to the table is the ability to search every word spoken and then go directly to that specific portion(s) of the video. BlinkxTV also offers keyword search of some of their video content. In some cases the actual transcript can also be seen.

Early next week I'll do my best to learn about any advanced syntax and options ability to limit or sort to a specific source, geographic viewing limitations, etc. I'll also ask how long material remains available. My guess is that if the content producer keeps the clip online, TVEyes will keep it accessible in their database. In many respects this news service is a very useful public showcase for the TVEyes fee-based service.

TVEyes for a Fee, Very Useful Those of you who read the blog on a regular basis probably recognize the name TVEyes. In fact, I've mentioned them many times since I started working with Danny and Chris on the SEW Blog.

The primary service is available by subscription. It's used in many industries including media and public relations, media organizations, and educational institutions to name just a few.

The fee-based TVEyes also know as TVEyes Professional offers near real-time (delayed by only a couple of minutes) searchable transcripts (created in many cases using closed captioning) of television programming on most U.S. major networks, local stations throughout the U.S., and a selection of stations around the world like BBC1, CBC Newsworld, and Al Jazeera (English language service). A free trial is available and IMHO, worth a look if having access to this material is of value to you and/or your organization.

I've mentioned TVEyes several times in the past few weeks including last Saturday when I put together a brief look at Danny's appearance on ABC's Nightline.

Moments after Danny's appearance was over I headed to my computer, logged on to TVEyes, and within seconds was able to access the full transcript (not available with the free service) and view the video of Danny on the show. The fee-based service offers email alerts so, when a name, word, company, etc. is mentioned on the air, the subscriber is notified within minutes of the airing. Very cool. Btw, fee-based service also offers some radio transcripts via their Radio Ears service.

Podcast Search from Podscope TVEyes is the company that powers Podscope. This service, launched last April lets users keyword search podcasts using speech recognition technology (again it's not a perfect transcript). Podscope also makes other video and audio content (both submitted by users and found via their crawl) keyword searchable. More about Podscope here. Last September, we learned that Podscope will power podcast search on AOL. Finally, in December Podscope began offering keyword-based RSS feeds. In other words, when the keywords you select are mentioned in a podcast, you're notified via RSS. Here's a Robin Good interview with the man in charge of TVEyes/Podcast, David Ives.

Partnership with Yahoo Another announcement that TVEyes made about a year ago was a partnership with Yahoo to provide keyword searching of video business news from Bloomberg Business Television. Using Yahoo Video Search, you're able to keyword search Bloomberg programming and then view online. To limit your search using Yahoo Video to only Bloomberg content use the syntax, site:tveyes.com [keywords].

Other Players in Both the Free and Fee-Based Space I could do many more blog posts on other services that offer something similar. For now, a look at just a few of them.

Free Services

BlinkxTV Transcript search (some content), transcripts (some content) keyword RSS feeds. User submitted and hosted content including podcasts.
Podzinger New, keyword search words spoken in podcasts. Pandia recently had some positive comments about the service.
General video search services (metadata search) include Google Video (free except for video store content), Yahoo Video, AOL Video Feedroom.com, YouTube.com, Truveo, and a fairly recent entry, and searchforvideo I think of SearchforVideo as a metasearch site. They cull content from many sources including MSN. I'm using this service more and more.

Bow, I must also mention the amazing archive of audio content from National Public Radio. Just about every major show is available free back to 1996. Transcript search is not available (I hope one day it will be) but each segment from each program is searched using a synopsis of the show. You can also browse by date and program title.

Also, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service, US) offers transcript search video of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (very useful), Washington Week in Review and several other programs. I have a list here. Technolgy from Virage.

Fee-Based Services For historical content from the past 100 years, Newsplayeris wonderful and very inexpensive.

Critical Mention
ShadowTV
recap from Fednet Search U.S. Congress, floor activity and hearings, near real time.
Nexidia Licenses technology to produce searchable audio and video.
StreamSage Licenses technology to produce searchable audio and video.
Virage Licenses technology to produce searchable audio and video.

Finally By NO stretch of the imagination is this anything close to a complete list of video services. Hundreds more exist. These are just a few services and technology providers that came quickly to mind. More soon.

Postscript: In case you're wondering what happened to the television transcripts that were once a part of the Google Video service, they are no longer available (at least for the time being). More on topic topic in this post.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:47 AM | Permalink

January 26, 2006

Predictions and More Speculation on a Google Music Service

Elinor Mills has a brief post reporting that Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck is predicting that Google will offer a digital music download service in the three to six months. Bear Sterns is using the name the name "Google Tunes" as their "code name" for the service. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the story.

I've speculated on a couple of occasions that a music download service would be service that Google would eventually offer.

Our May 5, 2005 post titled: Let's Speculate: GoogleMusic.com pointed out that Google has owned this domain since February 2003, after acquiring it from someone in Curacao. Of course a domain name doesn't guarantee or really mean anything only that it's something to think about.

Also, on Jun. 20, 2005, we blogged a Google Blogscoped item that had a few comments from Dave Winer about a Google iTunes clone.

That was then.

Today, Google's payment system is now operating with the Google Video Store and rumors of the "Google Wallet" (whatever it may be) make the possibility even greater IMHO. Even the recently launch of Google Music Search might send a clue or two. Searching might be built right into the Google Desktop. In fact, a popular add-in currently allows you to operate several iTunes functions directly from a sidebar plugin.

Of course, just like with video content, Google would face stiff competition from the likes of iTunes, Yahoo Music, Napster, Rhapsody, and many others. Since money is not a major issue at Google, they could (for a period of time) lower the cost of downloads to help gain market share. Rhapsody offered songs at 49 cents for period of time in 2004.

"Google Tunes" would also give Google another revenue more places to put contextually relevant and keyword ads for related products like MP3 players, concerts, t-shirts, etc. They could also cross-promote Google Tunes with Google Video. Buy a song from a certain artist and get the video OR by the video and get 20% of that artists album. \\

And don't forget the synergy between Google Book Search and an audio/music store as well as an upload program that would allow musicians to sell their music online.

One thing Google's entry into the music marketplace could mean is lower prices for consumers. That's cool.

Another revenue stream might have Google allowing offering a monthly subscriptions of unlimited downloadable content and/or one for those who only want to stream music to their computers. Many services already offer these services. In fact, I'm listening to a playlist of music I created via Rhapsody as I write.

Finally, many music services work with universities offering free or subsidized access for students. This is another market that I'm sure Google would want to play in given their cred on college campuses.

Google's greatest challenge? Quality content and then more qualuty content.

Fast Facts

I checked the USPTO and at this point I didn't see any trademark/service marks from Google relating to music.

As I said earlier, Google owns the domain GoogleMusic.com but not the .org or .net domains. GoogleMusic.info is registered to a NYC company

GoogleTunes.com, .org, .net and others are all registered but not to Google. Of course, acquisition is always a possibility.

GoogleTunes.com is a parked page on by godaddy.com. and owned by a person in California. The registration expires in May.

GTunes.com and other top level "GTunes" domains are all registered. GTunes.com itself is a personal site where a person shares his music.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:36 PM | Permalink

January 25, 2006

Google Video Now Features Premier Content, New Design Corrects "Big Mistake"

Bloomberg's Jonny Thaw's story: Google Says It Made Mistake in Design of Online Store, includes comments from Google's Marissa Mayer who said that the design of the Google Video home page (which received a makeover yesterday) didn't do a good job of promoting content that was available for sale from the new Google Video Store.

From the article: ``We made a big mistake, "Mayer, who oversees all of Google's search products, said yesterday. ``You can't come out and launch a product like Google Video and say `CSI' and `Survivor' are there if they're not on the home page.''

However, Mayer said the response to Google Video has been "absolutely fantastic."

The remainder of Thaw's article includes a number of stats from Nielsen//NetRatings including:

Google's video site attracted 3.04 million U.S. users in December
Microsoft Corp.'s MSN video had 9.46 million users
Yahoo video site had 2.15 million

As far as iTunes go, Thaw also uses Nielsen//NetRatings numbers to report that iTunes has a user base of numbered 20.7 million and according to Apple, they've sold sold 8 million videos and TV shows since October, when the video iPod debuted.

Finally, Thaw points out that at this point copy protected material purchased from iTunes can be played on portable devices or laptops that are not connected to the Internet.

Other services in addition to iTunes including MovieLink, Vongo (my new fave), and CinemaNow (all three U.S. only services) do allow for offline viewing of downloaded content.

Brad Hill and Nathan Weinberg point out the new look of the Google Video Home Page. Both note that the new page offers 24 thumbnails of programming for sale. If you're interested in a comparison, here's a screen cap of the previous Google Video Home Page.

In terms of promoting video content for sale, shortly after the Google Video Store launched, Google was promoting content like CSI and NBA highlights with links on the primary Google home page. A post on Searchblog and then one on our site discussed if this was a promo for a Google service or an advertisement since the content being linked to was for sale.

Posted by Gary Price at 3:04 PM | Permalink

January 24, 2006

Ask Jeeves Launches Their Own Image Database, New Refinement Features Also Available

Ask Jeeves has released their own internally built database of images and is no longer using imagery provided by PicSearch to power Ask Jeeves Picture Search. For the last 10 months, AJ was utilizing their own image retrieval technology on top of content provided by PicSearch.

Last March, we blogged about AJ beginning to use their own image retrieval technology/algorithm and included a link to an AJ blog post where you could compare relevancy with the AJ algorithm vs. the PicSearch algo.

Image Search accounts for 16% of all searches on Ask Jeeves.

In addition to their new internally built image database and retrieval technology, AJ Pictures also now offers:

+ "Zoom" technology to help the searcher focus and refine their picture search. Zoom is also available on web search results pages. More about Zoom in this SearchDay article.

+ More Picture Search Smart Answers Said a different way, more iinline images on web results pages if the query string suggests that the searcher might be looking for imagery. This is a feature that AJ has been offering for almost three years.

Here's an example. I also noticed that some general web searches, like this one for "dogs". Note the Smart Answers box at the top of the page with a pull down menu to go directly to the pictures database and find images of man's best friend organized by breed. The Smart Answer box also contains a pull down menu with direct access to Smart Answers about specific breeds.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:29 PM | Permalink

January 17, 2006

TV Transcripts and Still Images No Longer Part of Google Video

Both Danny and I, independently of one and another noticed that the searchable transcripts (and still images) from television shows (via tv stations in the Bay Area as well as satellite broadcasters) are no longer available via Google Video.

A Google spokesperson has confirmed the removal of this content but says that the service, "may reappear at a later date."

They added: Users have told us that they really want to see playable video content, so for now we are phasing out the still-image television content from our search results. We continue to work with the owners of television content, and hope to make this an important part of Google Video in the future.

Television transcript search and still images were a part of Google Video since its first release on January 25, 2005. Here's the news release that announced the service.

I first noticed the removal of the material over the weekend when I wanted to find the transcript of Saturday Night Live where two more mentions of Google had just occurred.

The good news is that researchers can still access near real-time transcripts AND full motion video from a variety of services and for a variety of tv stations and networks. Services include:

+ BlinkxTV Transcript search available for some of their content partners.

+ TVEyes (Fee-Based)

+ ShadowTV (Fee-Based)

+ Critical Mention (Fee-Based)

+ FedNet FedNet offers real time access to content from the U.S. Congress.

+ Finally, Yahoo Video offers transcript search and full motion video from Bloomberg Business Television via a partnership with TVEyes.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:36 PM | Permalink

Search Marketing for Video Content

In today's SearchDay article, Video Search: Still "Early Days", guest writer Greg Jarboe offers coverage of a recent Search Engine Strategies panel focused on the unique challenges search marketers face in creating and optimizing search-friendly video clips. It's a different world than the one we're accustomed to with written content.

A longer version of this story for Search Engine Watch members offers specific tips for encoding search engine friendly video, including recommendations for optimizing for specific engines, best types of meta data to use, tips on encoding tools and more. Click here to learn more about becoming a member.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:06 AM | Permalink

January 16, 2006

Om Malik has an interesting post about something we've mentioned here on the blog several times and that Om and I have chatted about via email, that being the amount of material found in video search engines that is in-copyright but readily accessible to view or download for free.

Some might call it video piracy.

What this means for the future of video search in general is an intersting issue that I'm sure we're going to be reading much more about in the future. Why? That's easy, money, and lots of it. Since more and more content is also for sale online via one of many services like iTunes or Google Video Store. If a copy of a movie or TV show is available for free will people still pay to download/rent/purchase the content? New services from TiVo and DirectTV will make the potential for sharing content even easier.

Om's post includes statements from Google and YouTube on the topic. From what I've learned (and these official comments reinforce) is that the burden to have in-copyright content removed from a video search engine is that of the copyright holder.

I'm thinking that tools and services to monitor and then have the proper requests sent to video search engines could be a big business not only here in the U.S. but worldwide.

Finally, Malik points to this just posted story that talks about the amount of Bollywood films available for free via one of many services.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:22 PM | Permalink

January 14, 2006

Loomia Offers Podcast/Vidcast Search, Personalized Recommendation Service Now Available for Site Developers

A new post and positive comments from Greg Linden along with posts from SiliconBeat and an older post and company profile from Michael Arrington at TechCrunch all point to a podcast/vidcast search and recommendation service named Loomia that launched last June.

Linden, who is the CEO of Findory and someone who knows a thing or two about personalization and recommendation services writes:

Loomia [is] easy to use and, impressively, is able to make reasonable recommendations even with just a few ratings. It seems like a useful way to discover interesting podcasts that might be difficult to find on your own.

Linden goes on to write about his experience using Loomia by saying that, "recommendations seemed a bit slow and seemed to tilt toward popular items and away from the tail." However, overall, he's positive about Loomia, a company that's based in San Francisco.

Btw, Loomia launched Loomia Recommendations last week. This service allows site owners and content producers to add personalized recommendations to their web site(s) with just a few click and at no charge. Matt has more about this service in his post.

I haven't spent much time using Loomia but it's on my short list of tools to spend some time reviewing in the very near future. I will that a read of Loomia's FAQ not only offers info about the service but also offers a easy to read intro to podcasting and vidcasting (how it works, how to do it). Perfect for web search trainers!

Personalized recommendation services are exploding on the web. We have just a few of many examples listed here and here. Additionally, if you're specifically looking for music recommendation sites and services, Richard Akerman maintains a list of seveal of them.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:57 PM | Permalink

January 13, 2006

Music Mix from Windows Live Messenger: Share a Playlist and and then Simultaneously Listen to the Music it Contains

From my Friday, "it's not directly search but cool" file. If you have access to the Windows Live Messenger (WLM) beta (I don't) it's a brand new feature that reads like something I'm really looking forward to checkng out as soon as it becomes available to a larger user group which should be soon. It's a new IM feature that allows you to share a playlist and then simultaneously listen to the music the playlist contains and chat about it with friends via IM.

Microsoft is calling it Music Mix In Messenger. According to this blog post, the service will "very soon" become visible to MSN Messenger users. The post also includes the requirements to access once it becomes available. Stay tuned.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:22 PM | Permalink

Quero's Web Site Goes into Hiding

It was just the other day when I posted links to a couple of articles about Quaero, the multimedia engine that's being developed in Europe by several companies including Thomson. Our post also included a link to the Quaero web site where you could learn more. If you go to the Quaero site today, it's only accessible if you have a password. What happened?

Thanks to Staci Kramer over at PaidContent.org for pointing to this IDG article that says the site the recent press attention and scrutiny that the service (informational only) was receiving did not make Frank Dangeard, the chairman of Thomson, happy According to the article he's imposed a "news blackout" and made the informational site password protected.

"There's been a lot of noise and our chairman decided we should stop making any comments until a more official press event," said Thomson spokesman Philippe Paban.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:06 PM | Permalink

January 11, 2006

Quaero, the European Developed Multimedia Engine, Gets Press Attention

An AP story as well one in Pandia discuss, Quaero, a multimedia engine in development, that's being billed as "Europe's answer to Google."

Quaero is set to be a multimedia engine so a direct comparison with Google seems off the mark. However, the word Google in a story gets people to pay attention.

Btw, this the same search project that Danny first blogged about first blogged about last August and again in September where he points out that France's Thomson once owned a multimedia search engine named Singingfish which is now owned by AOL.

From the AP: So far Quaero is just a scattering of top tech minds in labs across France and Germany, working on what they hope will be the world's most advanced multimedia search engine.

"We must meet the global challenge of the American giants Google and Yahoo," [French President Jacques] Chirac said in an address last week laying out his policy priorities for 2006. But details are scant. None of the key players -- including Thomson, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom -- would comment on cost.

Yes, that's the same Thomson that once owned Singingfish.

Lars Våge is much more positive about the project in his Pandia post versus the AP story:

From Pandia: A presentation of Quaero will be held at the Agance de l?innovation industrielle (AII) in January.

Will Quaero to some extent be able to recognize the contents of an image? Any way it seems that Quaero has more advanced technology in this area than e.g. Yahoo! or Google. Several companies are involved in the Quaero project along with Thompson. AFP?s article mentions Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, and the search engine Exalead. This is very promising ? Exalead has an interface that makes Google look out of date. Quareo means search in Latin and it will be exciting to do just that when Quero is launched. This will hopefully happen in spring.

Learn more: Direct to Quaero's home page.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:09 PM | Permalink

January 10, 2006

Cool! Newsplayer.com Offers Video Access to Over 100 Years of History

Since video search is all the rage these days, allow me to add another impressive video search tool for historical material.

The service is called Newsplayer and it has been around for years. Newsplayer is a fee-based service. However, it's very inexpensive. A one year personal subscription costs only 4 pounds/year. It's possible to pay for your subscription in British Pounds, U.S. Dollars, or Euros. With the conversion rate, my subscription cost $6.50. Registration is very easy.

Content Newsplayer offers searchable access to digitized film of historical events from the past 100 years (more or less). Over 14,000 news clips are available. The material itself comes from the ITN/Reuters news archive.

Search It's possible to search for and retrieve clips by keyword, topic or date. Your search is of metadata associated with each clip.

Since Newsplayer comes from the UK, it's heavy on UK content but that doesn't mean it will not be of interest to those outside of the UK. Here are just a few clips I found running a few quick searches.

+ Winston Churchill?s ?tribute to civil defence? speech + US pictures from Telstar satellite received in UK + US presidential primary elections for Democratic party, 1992 + Beer festival in Munich, 1927

View Material is viewable via Microsoft Media Player. You can also choose to stream in in high or low bandwidth mode. Some content is raw footage (no audio) while other content offers an audio track. The quality of the video stream is very good.

If you're a history buff, this is one database you should know about. Even though it's fee-based, it's low price makes it more than worth a look.

Finally, last weekend I posted about another video database that you might want to know about. The British Pathe News Archive offers free (for non-commerical use) thousands of hours of both stills and streaming content.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:31 PM | Permalink

Googling For Google Keynote Video

Gary wrote about the AOL acquisition of Truveo, which talks about how it will supposedly do a better job than other video search engines in finding relevant, timely content. I'm going to rope Gary into doing some testing, which should be fun. But I thought I'd try a quick one myself. What do I get in a search for Google on these services? In my mind, if they are timely, I should get something about the Google keynote at CES last year. Let's go!

Truveo: Cool, there's 9 minute clip provided by News.com, right at the top. And the other clips listed are in order of upload, so they all seem relevant to the most recent Google news.
Google: Nada, nothing. But I was intrigued by this Google Local and the Kansas City Royals commercial, put online by Google itself. My guess is this was played during Kansas City Royals games on the big screens during the game. But what if I sort by date? Will that get me the keynote? Nope. How about if I look for google ces? No results at all. What happened? Google Video doesn't crawl the web, so it's not going to find the great News.com clip.
Yahoo: Nothing. google ces? Nothing. Sort by date maybe? Not an option. Unlike Google, Yahoo does crawl the web, so the absence of News.com content is notable. Heading over to Yahoo News and choosing the AV option? No luck.
AOL Singingfish: Nothing, nor anything with google ces, even though Singingfish crawls.
YouTube: Same as AOL & Yahoo, no luck. But like Google, YouTube has the excuse of not crawling the web.
Blinkx: At the bottom of the list, and if I use the little slider to sort by date, it moves up a bit.

Overall, Truveo delivered well. But this is also involving a current events query. If I really wanted that old Brady Bunch episode, it won't come through for me on that.

In the end, you're likely to see video search get just as refined as web search did -- video search for news, video search for entertainment, videocasts and so on.

Postscript from Gary Although they DO NOT offer access to the News.com report of the keynote, AOL Video Search has a number of current video news stories about Google. Also, Yahoo News (limited to audio/video content) has a recent Reuters report (video) and an NPR story about the Google/AOL deal.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:40 AM | Permalink

Alternatives to Google Video

Google's announcement of a forthcoming video store is capturing a lot of press, but there are a number of other alternatives that are online today and are worth checking out, writes Gary in today's SearchDay article, Searching for Online Video.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 2:34 AM | Permalink

January 9, 2006

Google Video Store Now Open

About 72 hours or so after it was first announced the Google Video Store is now live on the Google Video site. To accomodate the launch, the Google Video home page has also been tweaked.

It's now divided up into three categories. + Google Video Store Also browsable at: http://video.google.com/videostore + Popular Video + Random Picks

Material from the Google Video Store can also be browsed by genre or show name. At the moment, three main categories are listed: + NBA Basketball Games + Movies + Music Videos

as well as the titles to purchase and download episodes of the following programs:

+ Brady Bunch + Charlie Rose Talk about from one extreme to the other. (-: + CSI + Ed Sullivan Show + Have Gun Will Travel + I Love Lucy + MacGyver + NCIS + Star Trek Deep Space Nine + Star Trek Voyager + Survivor Guatemala + Twilight Zone You can also browse these CBS programs here.

A quick look at some of the CBS programs available shows that 15 episodes of I Love Lucy are currently available to purchase for $1.99. Three episodes of Star Trek Voyager ($1.99) and 5 episodes of The Twilight Zone (1.99).

Btw, you can view a 30 second clip (no Google Video Player required) before making a decision if you want to purchase or rent the material. After you make your first purchase, you'll be prompted to download the video player (if required) if it's not already on your system. Remember, material that's not copy-protected can be viewed on any media player that can handle .avi files. They can also be downloaded to your iPod or PSP.

A new section Google Video FAQ offer info and assistance in downloading material and explanations of a buying a "Day Pass" for a video (24 hour viewing period) and purchasing a video. You can also read about how to tell if if a video is copy-protected?

Also, a simple Google Video search results pages now allows you to not only view your results in a grid or list, but also quickly limit your results to free video or video for sale by just clicking. You can also click to sort by the length of the material (Long - Medium - Short). Results can be also be sorted by relevance, date uploaded, and title.

As Danny pointed out the other day, at the moment Google Video content for purchase or rental is only available to those with credit cards with a US address. The Google Video Player is only available for Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines. Mac and Linux versions are in the works. After downloading the Google Video Player I was prompted with a box (here's a screen cap) that was pre-checked or pre-ticked to change the default search provider on IE to Google. Is this something new that Google is doing when downloading software?

Finally, to learn more about the new store, take a look at Marketwatch.com video interview or read a pseudo transcript of an interview with Jennifer Feikin, the director of Google Video that I posted earlier today.

Want to discuss? Check out the thread: Google Opens Video Store, in the SEW Forums.

Postscript 1: A bit confused. In our chat with Google's Peter Chane last week, we were told that Charlie Rose interviews would not be copy-protected and could be viewed on a myriad of devices. I just purchased and downloaded a Charlie Rose interview and was told that it DOES require the Google Video Player. Here's a screen cap of the page that appeared after I paid to download the program. Google's Jennifer Feikin also uses Charlie Rose as an example of material that would not be copy-protected in the interview she gave to Marketwatch.com.

Update: Well, I went and downloaded the file again and now get several download options (screen cap). In fact, the show can be downloaded to an iPod or PSP as an MP4 format file. Even more confusing is the Windows/Mac option that downloads the file in the Google .gvp format and requires the Google Video Player. Why is this confusing? Because there is no Google Video Player for the Mac as of today. In fact, Google's documentation makes that point very clear.

Let me end this update by saying that I've now downloaded the video after paying $.99, installed the player, and still can't watch the video. Why? It seems that at the moment (2 am EST) I'm unable get my Google account to authenticate so I'm unable to view the show. I keep receiving an error message. I'm told to go to video.google.com/support but I can't find anything about authentication problems. Yes, I know, Google Video is a beta. (-:

Postscript 2: It looks as if the Google Video Player problem/authorization issue was on my end, some sort of compatibilty issue with my system. I dowloaded the player and video on another computer and watched my video. If you're having issues, try doing the same thing (assuming you have more than one computer).

Postscript 3: If you like to read the small print, you'll notice on the Terms of Service page that payments for Google Video are being handled by the Google Payment Corporation, a company Google set-up last year. The privacy page was unavailable when I checked the link a few minutes ago. Postscript 4: If you're a Rocky and Bullwinkle fan (I am) you'll be happy to learn that the video store is home to 8 downloadable episodes.

Postscript 5: To get the Google Video Player, you need to search for any file, then click download, then a window should prompt to install it. No luck? Here's a direct link to the file.

Postscript 6 Just off the phone with Google. Some answers to my questions. 1) Look for the privacy link to work soon. 2) Why the Windows/Mac option? This appears because the Charlie Rose program is not copy-protected. A Mac user would be able to downoad an .AVI file that would play on their machine. The .avi file topic is discussed (it could be a bit more clear) on a video search help page. Google said they would try to make this more understandable on both the video download page and on the help page. 3) As of now, the first time you download from Google Video it will download a video player to your computer. That's why I was told I needed the player. Google said they are looking into how this is worded and might make a tweak or two.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:31 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Acquires Webjay

JZ himself (Jeremy Zawodny) posts that Yahoo has acquired Webjay. The official announcement is on the new Yahoo Music blog. Webjay is a music playlist community.

From the Yahoo Music Blog: [Webjay is] a site for easy creation and playback of playlists from the Web. Users can create playlists using music/audio/video from around the Web (with a simple Web form, from scraping a Web page, or with a fancy Ajax interface created by a 3rd party using Webjay APIs), share them with others, include them on their Web sites, browse other users playlists, play the playlists in any media player, or cannibalize the playlists to create new ones.

The blog post adds that the Yahoo Music Engine will incorporate some of these playlisting features and open API's in the future.

Btw, a "social" music recommendation service that I literally downloaded today and have yet to use is Last.FM. You get your own online music profile that you can fill up with the music you like. This information is used to create a personal radio station and to find users who are similar to you. Last.fm can even play you new artists and songs you might like.

Of course, my love and enjoyment for Pandora continues.

Postscript: GoFish is another service that allows users to share playlists with MyGoFish. Danny has a review of the service and examples here.

Posted by Gary Price at 4:43 PM | Permalink

Jennifer Feikin, Director of Google Video, Interviewed on Marketwatch.com

Marketwatch.com has just posted a brief interview (video) with Jennifer Feikin, director of Google Video, about the Google Video Store.

Selected comments from Feikin to questions from Bambi Francisco:

On Apple iTunes comparisons, competion It's actually quite a different model. It's the first open video marketplace where content owners of any sort can have their content owners store and can decide how they want to sell it,for what price, and also gives users a very wide variety of content...

On pricing and purchase models We really wanted this to be an open marketplace. So, different content owners are going to decide on different prices and they're also going to figure out different models of different genres of content. What we really felt is that we're in the first minute of a 24 hour day of video content online and content owners should be able to experiment with different prices, different type of business models for different genres of content...

On the payment system for the Google Video Store So, the payment system is just a feature of Google Video so that people can have a very easy way of paying for content...Once they see a 30 second preview of the content on Google Video they are prompted to purchase the content and at that point it's downloaded to their Google Video Player and they're charged for it.

On Revenue Sharing and Copyright Protection The content producers get the large majority of the revenue share, it's a very generous revenue share and copyright protection is optional. We've created a technology for copyright protection that content owners can have on or off.

On downloading to mobile devices You actually can download non-copyright protected content to the PSP and the iPod and that's the choice of the content owner.

On Google deciding to create their own DRM (digital rights management) software, why not use what's already out there? We wanted it to be very simple and very easy and so we wanted it to be a very good user experience and at the same time we wanted to create something that would be secure enough for the content owners we were working with. So this particular copyright protection has done both of those things.

On Feikin's vision for Google Video a year from know, two years from know. I think the real vision is getting content out to the users. What they want, when they want, how they want it and the first step was really figuring out how to get the greatest catalog of content which is Google's core mission, right, to organize the world's information. So, it's really about a huge breadth of content and so in order to get the most breadth of content we needed to create a payment system so that the could actually charge for content and integrate that feature into Google Video. So, that's sort of the step where we're at today. The next steps will be to get more content and continue figure out how to get the service out to the end user wherever they may be. Whether it's on their portable device, heater they're at home but it's really going to be a marriage of increasing the content on Google Video as well as getting it out to different areas where users want to use it.

Posted by Gary Price at 12:59 PM | Permalink

January 8, 2006

Free Access to History: Don't Forget the British Pathe News Archive Database

While I was reading the official news release about the soon to arrive Google Video Store I noticed that access to clips of historic events from the UK's ITN would be available for sale.

Historic, news and educational footage from ITN. This material ranges from coverage of key events in 2005 such as the Pope John Paul II's death, back to a recording of the 1896 coronation of Tsar Nicholas II ? one of the earliest known pieces of moving imagery.

That section from the Google news release reminded me of another news database that Chris first wrote about in 2003 about for SearchDay. It offers free access (for personal, non-commercial use) to more than 12 million images (and plenty of digitized film) from the British Pathe newsreel archive (1896-1970). Users can also license and purchase higher resolution downloads for a fee. In October, I blogged an update with some stats about how the database has done in its first two years.

If you're interested in what other people are downloading, here's a list of the Top 20 downloads. The site also offers an "anniversary finder" to locate material from a specific date.

Postscript: Btw, the BBC also offers a collection of film clips that chronicle UK history in their Nation on Film collection. You can view clips by topic or location.

Also, the American Memory Project has several collections of historic film clips. Still imagery can be found here and in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:30 PM | Permalink

January 6, 2006

Google Video Store Opens (Soonish)

As expected, Google has announced plans for a new Google Video Store allowing video purchase and rental from Google Video. Content from about 40 providers will be initially available for purchase, with the program opening to any video producer wishing to charge in the near future. Viewers can watch video using a new Google video player or download content formatted for the iPod Video and the Sony PSP. Google is also using its own version of copy protection for some programs.

"It will be an open video marketplace where consumers can buy or rent content," said Peter Chane, senior business product manager for Google Video, when explaining the new service to Search Engine Watch earlier this week. "We're adding the monetization component to video, and when we do that, we think an enormous amount of video will come online."

Google Video originally started out in June distributing its own Google Viewer, then shifted to playback to using Flash in September. Now as suspected, a downloadable Google Video Player is back. Google's bringing this out so that copy protected content can be played.

Not all content will have copy protection. It remains up to the provider to decide if they want to do this. For those that do, their content can only be viewed using the Google player.

The player is a 5MB download and works for Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines only, though Mac and Linux versions are planned. One feature of the interface is a filmstrip-style mode, where you can browse all the frames of the video as a way to jump to something of interest.

Copy protection works by the video being opened in the player and then authenticated online. Once authenticated, it can continue to be played as long as the viewer remains open.

Airplane travelers are out of luck, at the moment. Authentication can't be saved. That means if you aren't connected, you won't be able to watch the video, assuming copy protection is involved. Chane said Google hopes to come up with an offline viewing option for copy protected video in the future.

Some of the paid content won't involve copy protection, such as interviews from the Charlie Rose show. The entire archive of his shows is going to be sold at $0.99 each. They've chosen to forgo copy protection.

I asked Chane if Rose was the exception, but he said not. A surprising number of those selling content will not use copy protection, though Chane didn't give a specific breakdown, only saying it's a "mix."

Non-copy protected content can be played in the Google viewer, plus there will be links to download versions for the Apple iPod Video and the Sony PlayStation Portable. Windows Mobile users are out of luck, however. No content formatted for them will be offered. I suspect using third party tools like Nero, it will be pretty easy to transcode them, however.

I'm actually in the middle of a project to find the best way to set up video so I can play it on my iPod, PSP, Windows Mobile PDA and my Windows Mobile Smartphone. If I rip a cartoon for the kids, I want to do it once and make it work across all my devices. Keep an eye on my personal blog, and I'll share any tips along those lines in the near future.

Google might add Windows Mobile / Pocket PC formats in the future, saying it went with the iPod and PSP because it considers them the most popular gadgets for viewing video outside of a PC. Google's also looking at how they can use copy protection native to both devices, so that copy protected content can be sent to them.

Will a Google version of iTunes be coming along, in order to help users manage getting this content onto their devices? There aren't any immediate plans, Chane said.

iPod content downloads in a format to automatically let it be added to that device through iTunes. PSP content should be downloading using the peculiar naming format that the PSP requires, then Google expect PSP enthusiasts to use Sony's own tool or a third party tool for moving their content over (try PSP 9, though no programs are actually needed if you know where to drag-and-drop the files).

While Google Video is currently a keyword search tool, it is to gain an enhanced browsable interface. That's good, because with paid content, many people will know they want to drill down directly to a particular program. CBS and the National Basketball Association are two of the 40 or so initial content providers that will be offering thousands of titles. TV shows like CSI and Star Trek:Voyager are among the offerings from CBS.

Google has long said it will let anyone upload video for sale. That's "soon" to be enabled, Chane said. Content can be purchased outright or "rented" so that will can be viewed up to 24 hours after purchase. Longer periods may be added in the future, Chane said.

At launch, only those with credit cards using a US address can buy video. Google does plan to add support for those with non-US addresses in the future. Payments will be handle through the Google Accounts system, which will gain a feature to let credit card info be added. The long expected Google Wallet? No, Chane said the system wasn't going by that name.

Google's already grappled with copyrighted content being uploaded to Google Video since it launched. Gary Price, on the call with me, wondered what prevented people from uploading and selling such content. Chane said Google is continue to enhance its monitoring and those who were caught selling copyrighted video without permission would be dealt with.

Google's not alone in the online video sales space. For some alternatives and the competition, see Gary's Google Faces Plenty Of Competition In Online Video Rental & Sales Marketplace article.

Looking for the official word? See the Google press release here

Want to comment or discuss? Visit the Google area of our Search Engine Watch Forums.

Postscript: The Google Video Store was originally supposed to be live to coincide with the announcement. Google's since said that it will go up as soon as possible, with no other timeframe guidance beyond that. Watch the Google Video site, and when it's live, you'll see it there.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:00 PM | Permalink

Google Faces Plenty Of Competition In Online Video Rental & Sales Marketplace

Although Google Video has been grabbing the headlines the expected release of a Google Video download/rental service, many other services have been around for a couple of years while others have just come online. These services allow customers to record, search, browse, download and/or purchase video content online.

We're not talking about stores selling you a DVD (like Amazon) but suppliers of streamable content for online and offline viewing. In other words, find your content and watch it immediately online or save it (in some cases) for offline viewing on your desktop, laptop, or in some cases, portable device.

What follows is a selection of a few of these services and tools. By NO means, is this a comprehensive list. It focuses on services available in the United States.

Vongo

Vongo is a brand new service launched this week by the Starz Entertainment Group. Unlimited access to over one thousand movies, many just out of theaters and many exclusives to Starz/Vongo. Download and playback on Windows-based PCs, laptops, and select portable media devices, as well as on a TV. When movies are no longer available, they time out and are removed from the hard drive. New content added each week. More info about Vongo and access to the client here. The cost is $9.99/month. The price also includes live streaming of the Starz movie channel. Additionally, some titles are available on a pay-per-view basis for $3.95.

Current titles include: + The Incredibles + Hitch + National Treasure

Starz also has a deal with Real Networks (Starz Ticket) that offers a rotating library (about 40 titles/week) of movies for downloading and offline viewing at $12.95/month. Unless you have a 300Kbps or higher bandwidth connection you cannot access the Starz Ticket service.

TiVo

The digital video recording service announced in November that content recorded on your TiVo can be transferred to your iPod or Playstation Portable. In other words, you take your TV picks selections with you which is quite appealing. This new service is expected to go live sometime this quarter. In 2005 TiVo announced a feature that allows TiVo recorded content to be transferred to a laptop or computer via a home network. TiVo also announced a deal last year that allows the actual recorder to be programmed remotely using Yahoo.

DIRECTTV

Just announced is DIRECTTV's new DIRECTTV 2Go service for portable media players. "The DIRECTV 2Go service will allow DIRECTV customers to transfer programming content from their DIRECTV Plus DVR to a wide variety of portable media players."

iTunes

Download video content to your computer and then transfer to your video-capable iPod. You'll find TV shows from ABC, NBC, USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, and Disney Channel. Oh, and speaking of NBC, MSNBC offers free online access to The NBC Nightly News. Other shows like Meet the Press can be downloaded as podcasts. It's also worth noting that NBC on iTunes is bringing back classic shows like Adam-12 for download and viewing. One episode costs $1.99. iTunes also has video content from Pixar (that makes sense) as well as music videos ($1.99) and movie trailers. This week they have also added 15-25 minute reviews of the 4 BCS College Football Games. They cost $1.99.

CinemaNow

This service (Windows only) allows the user to rent both new and old films (over 2500) and other video content to view online or offline on their computer or television. New movies like Sin City rent for $3.99, all other movies are $2.99. Both have a 24 hour viewing window. Search (the advanced interface offers many fields) or browse to find titles of interest. Movies are automatically made non-viewable 24 hours after they're first played. CinemaNow also offers a library for downloading to the Windows Mobile Portable Media Center, a small library of high-definition videos, and some movies for sale. To use CinemaNow you'll need to use your IE browser. A seven day free trial is available. Btw, CinemaNow is also testing a subscription-based model for some content.

MovieLink

MovieLink (Windows only) is a service that I've used many times and without any problems. Again, download a small client and then select from a collection of hundreds of movies for rental (prices start at $1.99 for a 24 hour viewing window. Tim Burton's, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is listed as a new release and costs $3.95 for 24 hours from the time you click play. In many cases you can get another 24 hours of viewing time for $1.99 without having to download again. Like the other services, after your viewing time has expired the film is no longer viewable. Search or browse for titles. Movielink permits you to view content on either Microsoft Media Player or Real Player. In addition to movies you'll find content from National Geographic, BBC, and Discovery Networks. Movielink also offers a 25% discount on all rentals for students and members of the military. Finally, Movielink also has a beta where they will sell titles. Prices start at $8.99. Details here. Btw, you'll need to use your IE browser to access the MovieLink web site.

We could go on but that's enough to get you started. Look for enhanced services and many new ones moving forward. Assuming, Google's new service comes, it will also test of the Google's phenomenal branding. In this situation they will be competing in one form or another with two other companies and services that also have the Google "buzz" -- those being Apple and TiVo.

Postscript: Also worth mentioninig is an AOL beta I blogged about in November that delivers high quality video directly to your computer while your system is inactive. Download info here. Hmmm. Perhaps with their new deal with AOL, Google will also begin delivering content this way.

Postscript 2: Please see Google Video Store Opens

Postscript 3: It's not only the services I've mentioned above offering video but it's also Audible.com that Google will be competing with. Google Video will offer Charlie Rose interview shows. They're also available as audio podcasts via Audible.com. They offer monthly and yearly subscriptions (a full year is about $50). You can also purchase individual shows/interviews for $3.95.

Posted by Gary Price at 2:22 PM | Permalink

Yahoo Go Puts Yahoo Services Into Cell Phones, TV & PCs

Yahoo has launched Yahoo Go (link via PaidContent), a suite of products designed to let people reach information whether they're on their PCs, phones or using TV. The suite will be formally announced by Yahoo CEO Terry Semel at CES keynote today

Yahoo Go Mobile currently works only for Nokia Series 60 phones. It will allow you to sync your contacts, photos and mail with Yahoo. Yahoo says that in the near future, Yahoo Go Mobile will be preinstalled on the Nokia 6682 from Cingular Wireless. Beyond Yahoo Go Mobile, plain old Yahoo Mobile has a wide range of services, some of which involve no special software at all.

Yahoo Go TV is a coming application for Windows XP machines that allows you to see photo slide shows, listen to internet radio stations, search for movie info and clips and find video from the web. What's the TV part, then? It will work with a PC-enabled TV, News.com reports. Or, I suspect, a PC that displays TV in addition to a PC desktop, such as the Windows Media Center does. This application looks to tap into existing Yahoo products but perhaps make them easier for users to be aware of through a more customized software interface.

Yahoo Go Desktop / PC is another coming application that looks incredibly similar to the Google Sidebar. It allows you to apparently tap into and sync more easily with existing Yahoo services such as Flickr photo sharing, blogging on Yahoo 360 and Yahoo Mail. A new "social browser" is also promised, though this seems to be the sidebar or dashboard-like application I mentioned. From various reports, Yahoo Go Dashboard appears to be the name of this.

Yahoo To Launch Go Initiative; Mobile, Connected TVs & Desktop Access over at PaidContent has a nice summary, and v ia Russell Beattie, a number of articles have some additional details.

Yahoo goes mobile over at News.com says Yahoo Go Mobile will work in 10 different countries (I suspect this actually means it will work with 10 different Yahoo country specific editions, such as Yahoo US versus Yahoo UK). Yahoo Go TV is promised for download before April and remote recording of TV shows is planned.

Yahoo Launches Content Service for Phones from the AP covers Yahoo working with Motorola to bring Yahoo Go into its phones, though Google still looks to be the preferred search provider for Motorola, given its deal announced today.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 9:33 AM | Permalink

January 5, 2006

BBC News Makes "Iconic" Video Clips Available For Free Using Creative Archive License

According to this Netimperative article, online researchers, non-commercial video producers, and mashup specialists in the UK (only) might be interested to learn that the BBC, using the Creative Archives License, has just released nearly 80 video news clips from the BBC News Archive. Access to the material is free.

The clips cover a range of iconic moments in modern history, including 9/11, the fall of the Berlin Wall and crowds ejecting soldiers from Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

You can browse a complete list of clips here.

The BBC says that more video will be available in the future. The video can be downloaded in QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG1 and MP3 formats and can be downloaded at the BBC Open News Archive where you can also learn more.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:57 PM | Permalink

Google Pack Software Bundle & Pay Per View Video Coming From Google, To Be Announced At CES

Via Threadwatch, Google to Offer Video Downloads, Software That Rivals Microsoft's from the Wall Street Journal says that Google cofounder Larry Page will announce in his CES keynote this week that Google will offer pay-per-video downloads through Google Video and a new "Google Pack" bundle of software that people can download.

Per-per-view video or video for purchase is no surprise. Google's already said it would do this. It's simply been a matter of timing, so perhaps the time -- Page's first CES address -- is right. Rumblings supporting the Wall Street Journal's story are out there. Garrett Rogers has spotted per per view screens in the wild, along with perhaps a new video software program coming.

The Google Pack would bundle Google software along with other software such as Norton AntiVirus, RealPlayer and Trillian. Google's given no previous indication something like this would be coming. However, the company did recently do a bundling deal to put its applications on Lexar flash drives, the latest in a series of deals.

There's also an arrangement with Sun for distribution of the Google Toolbar, a bundling deal with WinZip to distribute the Google Toolbar and Google Desktop, a similar one with InterVideo and a long-standing one from 2004 to put the Google Toolbar with RealPlayer.

Interestingly, one of the bundled applications within the Google Pack will be the Adobe Reader. Adobe already has a partnership with Yahoo to include a cobranded Yahoo Search toolbar within copies of reader that Adobe hands out.

Postscript: Please see full details at Google Pack Offers 1-Stop Downloading Of Software and Google Video Store Opens

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:47 AM | Permalink

January 3, 2006

Search By Drawing: Meet Retrievr & Search By Sketch Demos From Purdue & Princeton

First discovered by Tara (and also blogged by Barry, Philipp, and John) is an experimental search tool called retrievr that allows the user to find related Flickr images by drawing a sketch. Barry writes that it doesn't work too well while Philipp is more postitive. Tara notes it works well for browsing.

The concept of sketching/drawing to find imagery is not new.

Experimental work in this are has been going on at Purdue University for several years. Here are a few related links, papers, and a small demo.

Researchers at Purdue University have been doing work in this area for several years. Here are some useful links.

+ Search by Sketch Demo (IE Only)

+ Research Publications (all full text):

Overview articles: + 3D Searching starts to take shape From Computer.org (PDF)

+ Search by Shape

+ Overview article from News.com

Want more search/sketch demos? Our friend Michel at telendro.com.es notes that Princeton University is also doing work in this area. Demos here.

While we're on the subject of image search demos, this one from LTU Technolgies is also cool. Keyword search royalty free images from the Corbis catalog and then find visually similar imagery using LTU's "image DNA" technology. Want to learn more. See this post.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:08 PM | Permalink

December 29, 2005

YouTube Pops Above Google Video Thanks To SNL Clip

So here's a mashup for you. I wrote earlier about YouTube and how I didn't really trust Alexa data to prove the popularity of anything. Gary wrote of a popular Saturday Night Live skit being shared through places like YouTube and Google Video. LeeAnn Prescott over at Hitwise puts the two together with some nice charts to show YouTube's rising popularity plus a big boost it got thanks to that SNL clip.

SNL Chronicles of Narnia Rap causes YouTube to Overtake Google Video Search is the rundown, and you can see how it caused a big uptick at YouTube -- so much so that YouTube overtook Google Video in usage. But also note that YouTube has been steadily gaining for the past few months. The Hitwise data I trust more than Alexa monitoring, so color me convinced that the service is growing! Yahoo Video remains well above both of the other services, however. What's not growing is AOL's long established Singingfish site.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:15 AM | Permalink

December 27, 2005

YouTube For Finding, Sharing Video

Has YouTube Beaten Google over at InsideGoogle turns me on to the "massively popular" YouTube video sharing site. So massively popular that I never heard about it before now, which I either means (1) I'm out of it (2) it's not that massively popular or (3) something of a mash-up in between.

YouTube is apparently the Flickr for video, Flickr being what many consider to be a massively popular photo sharing site that Yahoo bought in March. Popular unless you ask my mom, my sister, a variety of people who use the web but never have heard of it. Heck, even my 14 year old niece into MySpace doesn't Flickr.

The point? I don't know the conventional wisdom that Flickr is so hot is necessarily the case with the bulk of web users. I suspect it is even less so for YouTube. But that out of my system, You Tube is clearly a site for many to check out and watch. As InsideGoogle points out, you can upload video and search among all the user contributed content.

YouTube Takes Off over at the Business 2.0 blog has some stats and comments on growth, though Alexa stats pretty much leave me cold for proving anything. A few news clips can be found via YouTube itself. Keep up on happenings with the service via its blog here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:41 AM | Permalink

December 22, 2005

Google Not Buying Riya

Just to tidy up loose ends, photo search service Riya quashed recent rumors that it would be bought by Google.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:48 AM | Permalink

December 19, 2005

Blinkx.tv Ends a Busy Year with a New Feature and Some New Content

It's been a very busy year for multimedia search engine, Blinkx/Blinkx.tv in 2005 and company is ending the year with a new service and the addition of some new searchable content

+ Today, Blinkx.tv is announcing a new service named "blinkx.tv To Go" that allows users to download video blogs to their iPod and other type of portable video devices with just a single click.

From today's announcement: blinkx.tv To Go enables users to enter a search of video blogs, and with one click, either upload specific results to their iPod or portable video player, or save the search as a "channel," which is automatically and perpetually updated and fed to their devices, where it can then be viewed as a single media stream. blinkx takes care of all the formatting, regardless of the original file type.

Blinkx.tv continues to crawl material from well-known broadcasters like CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. In most cases, Blinkx.tv provides transcript search that (all spoken words in a webcast/broadcast) from these sources.

In June 2005, BlinkxTv began crawling and making podcast content seachable. A few months later in October, Blinkx announced that they will host, and make searchable (for free) user generated video content as a part of their My Blinkx.tv service.

+ Last week, Blinkx.tv announced a deal to make over 800 one minute video clips of authors talking about their books from www.meettheauthor.com and www.meettheauthor.co.uk keyword searchable and viewable online.

Here's a brief review with a few other key Blink/Blinkx.tv posts from the past year: + Speeches, Lectures, and More Added to BlinkxTV Database Note: I hope that this service continues to grow in 2006. Good idea. + blinkx.tV Adds Video Content from HBO + RSS + Video Search = Blinkx.tv SmartFeed + Blinkx Now Offering Podcast Search + Blinkx.tv Inks Deal with iFilm

Postscript: 2005 also saw the debut of Blinkx.tv in China.

Posted by Gary Price at 11:26 AM | Permalink

December 15, 2005

Music Searching on the Web

Here are some odds and ends, an opinion or two, and lots of links to a few specialty databases that we didn't include in today's SearchDay about Google's new music search OneBox. They might be of use to those of you with an interest in searching for music and music info.

I think Ask Jeeves makes great use of several sources including one of my all-time favorite web reference databases, AllMusic.com as a part of their Smart Search box.

Yahoo also offers some good stuff in the music shortcut arena but I think instead of linking to Yahoo Music for certain shortcut links, they should offer links into to their powerful Yahoo Audio Search service. Yahoo Audio search could be the best illustration to this point of Yahoo's many new services. Btw, Yahoo Audio Search not only includes music but also podcasts. Here's a link to my overview of Yahoo Audio Search.

Google would only tell SEW that they licensed track and album info found on their new music service from a "third party." My hunch (just a hunch and I'm not known as Gary the Gambler) is that it comes from var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-564586-7"); pageTracker._setDomainName(".searchenginewatch.com"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); window.collarity_appid = "incmedia"; //> //>

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