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Video Search On The Move

Posted By Hollis Thomases on Feb 3rd, 2005

Recently, it seems that one of the major search engines - Google, Yahoo, Ask, or MSN - is rolling out a new service or product on a daily basis. The newest activity in the field of search appears to be combing through videos. Or in some cases, the transcripts of videos.

Google had a debut of their version of video search last night. In what appears to be a well-timed reaction to Google’s release, a “video” tab appeared above Yahoo’s search box, too. The arena they are entering isn’t a large one. But it is populated by at least a couple of other members worth mentioning, including one backed by AOL.

Google Video Search

Google’s video search indexes closed captioning text. Their “About Google Video” page explains that they have been working on video search since December, 2004, and their present offerings are only from a limited number of sources, for now.

Google does have a “contact us” page for people interested in sharing video content with them. The page indicates that they presently do not accept adult and home video. They also ask: “What content do you have online distribution rights for?” rather than “What content do you wish to submit?”

They note that the videos aren’t available yet, but “stay tuned.” For now, the search functions as a guide to recently shown, or soon to air televisions shows. But, it may expand significantly beyond that role over the next few years.

Yahoo! Video Search

Yahoo! Video Search was originally released in December and appears to reach out to the whole web, much in the fashion of its other searches. The “advanced video search page” allows you to limit your queries to specific formats, or domain types, or even to specific sites. There is the possibility of explicit adult content showing up in results. Safe search can filter some of it, and it is possible to filter only the video result on the advanced video search page.

People can also submit RSS video feeds to Yahoo! using Media RSS or RSS 2.0 enclosures. There’s more information about the Media RSS module here:

Media RSS Syndication - Frequently Asked Questions about Media RSS

Using either Media RSS or RSS 2.0 with the appropriate enclosures allows you to submit a fair amount of meta data about the video, and about the way it is presented on the page it is located upon. It is also helpful for sites where Yahoo!’s attempt to index the page might be hindered by javascript, or by the video being only available only in a pop-up player window.

Blinkx Video Search

Blinkx.tv is another video search, though not tied to a larger company like Google or Yahoo. It’s owned by a privately held firm located in San Francisco and London. There’s a ten paged white paper (pdf) on the Blinkx site that explains some of the technology behind their audio and video search.

Rather than relying upon closed caption transcripts like Google, or contextual indexing or meta data in RSS feeds like Yahoo, Blinkx captures and records audio and video, and then uses software to index the material. It culls material from broadcast, cable, and satellite television, analog and digital radio, and internet based material.

Blinkx also allows the setting up of smart folders, which you can train to look for specific audio and video content as it becomes available. Sounds a little like Tivo to me :->

SingingFish

Last, but not least is SingingFish which is an AOL property. SingingFish offers a free submission page for sites with audio and video content, though no guarantees of inclusion.

SingingFish does seem to have a fairly high visitor rate, and offers a paid inclusion program to have your audio and video feeds linked to from the site. Use of paid inclusion also allows the purchaser to create a customized landing page, and the ability to show sales options if they want to sell the content. In addition to AOL, distribution partners for Singingfish include, amongst others, WindowsMedia.com and RealOne.com.

Distribution Rights

One of the issues that will be involved in Video search, is whether or not the people who own the videos being listed have the distribution rights to allow access to videos. It will be interesting to see which approaches these video search engines take with verification.

Peer-to-peer networks enabling the unauthorized sharing of music and video have been the target of most major media companies. Companies providing search of video run the risk of alienating people who may be their biggest customers if they don’t manage the handling of distribution rights in the right manner.

Online Marketing and Video Search

So, now that we all know that Video Search is out there and growing, how can Internet and Search Marketers use Video Search to reach target markets of consumers and potential reoccuring site traffic? Online video and broadband are not only adding a new entertainment medium to the Internet, but also a new and exciting marketing channel.

Video Samples - A number of online sites provide training services and paid tutorials via video. Some sites also specialize in paid on demand video downloads or movies. By creating a 10 second sample and then submitting the presentations to search engines, sites can market their video services via this growing channel.
Video Search Engine Optimization - Along with building and submitting video samples comes the optimization of them. Popular terms in the video file name and the target page itself help with the optimization and ranking of video files on Yahoo. iFilm has done an excellent job of Video SEO for the term “American Idol” on Yahoo Video Search. Four of the top six results direct users to iFilm American Idol “video shorts” pages, chocked full of paid advertising and promotions for paid video feeds.
Warning: American Idol reject William Hung has also made it into these top rankings with his own site listings. If you’re sick of William we suggest not clicking on his video images.
Feeds and Paid Inclusion - While marketing videos, case studies and testimonials incorporating the use of video provide an alternative that words and still images in html might not be able to match.
A lot of video is presented in popup boxes and player displays that are all but impossible for normal search engines to index. The RSS Feed that Yahoo uses can be used to help the engine locate those videos, and can include additional information, such as the format of the video and the size of the window that it opens within. Paying for inclusion in SingingFish can also do the same, but instantly.
Talent Promotion and Buzz - Video search might also make it easier to find some of the more unique and interesting animators on the web, with all of this indexing going on. One example that comes to mind is BBC animator Joel Veitch, who attracted an underground buzz with the animations on his personal website, RatherGood.com, amongst a younger crowd over the past couple of years, and a considerable amount of attention over the use of some characters from that site in Quiznos’ commercials.
Video Advertising - MSN, ESPN, and Yahoo have already launched pay per view and free online video channels which offer traditional TV style advertising spots in between web features.
ESPN Motion has had no problem selling their ad spots for the online video service that can carry ads before it shows highlights from SportsCenter. ESPN has tied the video advertising into its main online advertising packages and media kits. As online video becomes more popular, selling advertising spots in those videos will help to fund their bandwidth needs and become a solid form of online revenue generation.