Video Search Poised for Next Generation of Search Demand

The Internet continues to grow and become many things to many people. In the past, information seekers muddled through thousands of results from search engines with algorithms not yet perfected. Results varied from a quality on-target match to someone’s home-grown spam web site. The latter became infuriating. The Big Three (Yahoo, Google and MSN) responded and are continuing to develop into mature applications.

The searches, however, remain text-driven. Results provide links to web pages filled with text and static graphics. Yahoo, Google and MSN have formed entire businesses around web searching. They are able to deliver information instantly to a global market. Why is it, then, that the dynamic nature of the Internet only delivers text-based content? If a search results in a page with video, audio or other rich media, this is the exception not the rule. The concept of cataloging, searching and viewing video and audio over the Internet has only recently become viable. Mainly, this is due to increasing download speeds and better compression technology.

Digital media, audio, video, photos, Flash and text, is continuing to grow in demand. Rich media content, such as audio and video, is the next generation of search engine development. The Big Three realize this opportunity, and quickly launched prototypes at the end of 2004 (http://video.google.com, http://video.yahoo.com, http://video.msn.com). The desire for rich media has been the demand of humans for centuries. Television and radio meet that demand. Satellites meet that demand. The Internet has only begun to meet that demand.

Several companies are scrambling to make tools to accommodate audio and video integration on web sites. Some are focusing on creating tools to simplify uploading content; Google and Yahoo are already launching beta applications. Some businesses are working on the delivery of the content through streaming technology. Yahoo said net users are expected to stream more than 21 billion videos in 2005, up from 14.2 billion last year.

Other companies are working to fill niche markets that demand video search capabilities. A small company in Beaufort, South Carolina has done just that. Digitalsmiths has developed Media Access Pro (www.mediaaccesspro.com), an application that is quickly becoming the studios’ choice to search television and commercial programming. Digitalsmiths’ focus has been on providing the ability to search TV shows for specific content. The content is then pulled out and used to create commercials. Shows such as Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Friends, King of Queens and others are integrated into the application.

Digitalsmiths has empowered producers to create targeted and meaningful promotions. Media Access Pro has also enabled studios to realize additional revenue through innovative product placement, DVD releases and repurposing of content.

“Our goal is to make television and video content in general accessible at the click of a mouse. There should be no mystery in providing instant access to any precise moment captured on video,” commented Digitalsmiths’ CEO Ben Weinberger.

The search industry has a unique opportunity to once again meet human demand for content. So, while Google, Yahoo and MSN battle for dominance in global markets, Digitalsmiths is proving the viability of this new technology one niche at a time.