by CIO Staff

Microsoft, blinkx Ink Video Search Pact

News
Oct 10, 20063 mins
Enterprise Applications

Microsoft, the world’s largest producer of software, and blinkx.tv, a video search site that employs voice recognition, as well as image and contextual search methods to improve upon simple, text-based services, have inked a pact that will see the search provider power video search on sections of the software giant’s MSN and Live.com websites, Reuters reports.

Blinkx.tv currently powers video search for such Web heavies as AOL, Lycos and Times Online, and it indexes video clips for Fox, MTV, Reuters and YouTube, according to Reuters.

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In place of the typical slice of the advertising pie, Microsoft said it will pay blinkx a direct licensing fee that will be calculated based on the popularity of the blinkx service, said Suranga Chandratillake, blinkx founder and chief technology officer, Reuters reports.

The site indexes some 6 million hours of audio, video and television content, all of which is available for search, according to blinkx.

San Francisco, Calif., and London-based blinkx also on Tuesday announced a number of upgrades to its video search service. The enhancements are designed to make the video search experience more like watching television, where users make choices based on visual clips instead of text listings.

“People are much better at understanding information visually, so we redesigned blinkx.tv to display video in a way that’s both efficient and compelling to the eye,” Chandratillake said in a press release posted on PRNewswire.com. “Video should be delivered visually, not as a text-based list of results.”

The site’s new features include “Video Walls,” which enable users to click a “wall it” button to display relevant search results on a screen composed of 25 tiny screens that display video clips. All a user need do is scroll over a screen to see a portion of that clip play. Video Walls can be inserted into other sites or Web locales, such as blogs or social networking profile pages, to share notable clips with others, according to the release.

blinkx users can also now customize their video clip playlists with the site’s new My Playlist feature, by simply dragging relevant clips into their playlist and then organizing them. The clips can be played in the assigned order, and playlists can be shared with others via e-mail, blinkx said in the release.

For additional information, visit the firm’s site.

Related Links:

  • Google to Pick Up YouTube in $1.65B Stock Deal

  • Google, Sony BMG, Warner Music Team in Video Deal

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