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Blinkx Embraces Video Search

Much ado was made about the launches of Google Video and Yahoo Video Search. However, there was an upstart service, called blinkx TV, which beat both of the search giants to the punch. Continue below

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Blinkx.com, makers of a well-received desktop search utility, launched a video search service called blinkx TV in December of 2004. According to the company's description, blinkx TV allows users to search the web for audio and video clips.

In order to access their video search, users can visit the blinkx TV site and perform a keyword-based search. However, because blinkx TV embraces the idea of conceptual search, they recommend expanding queries to more of a natural language approach. The ability to perform this type of video search is found only at blinkx TV.

To support contextual searches, blinkx employs Context Clustering Technology (CCT) technology. This enables blinkx TV to better understand the context of the words being used in the search query. CCT also allows blinkx to better refine search results in order to reduce clutter and non-relevant returns.

Normally, when search engines populate their index for video search, the necessary information is gathered by spidering the closed caption content, meaning that although the file medium is still in video format, the information stored in the index is derived from the text contained within. Blink TV uses a different approach.

In a discussion early this week, Suranga Chandratillake, co-founder of blinkx, revealed some details about the methods used by blinkx TV to populate their index. According to Suranga, they use a combination of technology licensed from Autonomy Corporation PLC and in-house developments. This allows the indexing process to go deeper into the video file and extract metadata from the picture and audio information contained within a video.

This technology allows blinkx TV to perform what Suranga calls deep indexing. It also gives blinkx TV the ability to support voice recognition. This means blinkx TV can match words from the search query to words spoken by those in the video. Because blinkx derives much more from video files than just the closed-caption content, their goal of delivering highly relevant returns is less of a burden.

For much more information about this process, please read the blinkx TV white paper (pdf).

Suranga also discussed the monetary potential for blinkx TV. Because of the nature of video search, it lends itself to create partnerships with online movie houses and those who provided paid video content. One such online video house, Movielink.com, has an agreement with blinkx TV that works in a transactional method.

If, for instance, you are searching for a movie provided by Movielink, the search query would return the video and the user would be allowed to view a snippet of the content. However, in order to view the entire file, the user would have to pay the applicable fees to Movielink, of which blinkx TV would receive a portion. Agreements such as these are similar to referral services, however, the content is much more substantial, as are the revenue figures it would take to satisfy both parties.

Another financial model used by blinkx TV is the concept of video ads. These are similar to television commercials; except they would be appearing on blinkx TV. However, monetization is not the immediate goal of blinkx TV. This is made quite apparent by comments Suranga offered while discussing the blinkx business model concerning video advertising:

"This is flexible. Depending on the placement, the partner, and the ad, it can be anything from a straightforward revenue-share all the way through to ads that we control entirely ourselves. Right now it's less about [advertising] and a lot more about ensuring there's great, valuable, interesting content for our many users."

In order to ensure their content is top shelf, blinkx TV has content agreements with a number of broadcast companies (Fox, ABC, CBS, ESPN to name a few.).

Considering the blinkx TV methods for populating their index, their support for conceptual search, and a commitment to providing superior content, it certainly seems as if blinkx TV is in a position to follow through with their promises.

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About the Author:
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Chris Richardson is a search engine writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.