Searching #78: Video

Video content on the web is ubiquitous these days. Innumerable methods and tools exist for editing, uploading and sharing it. Moreover, the most compact and inexpensive of digital cameras now have video recording capability, making amateur moviemakers of us all. Not only is it easy create your own clips, it’s just as easy to find others out there thanks to search engines devoted solely to searching for video content.

In 2006, Time Magazine named as its annual Person of the Year not, as is customary, a world leader, scientist, or celebrity but instead selected “You,” the broad base of users of the World Wide Web. This was due in no small part to a then-relatively young site known as “YouTube.” Though it’s likely the most popular video site on the Internet, YouTube is different from other video search engines for the fact that 1) it is primarily a video-sharing site, allowing users to upload their own content for public or private viewing after creating a free account, and 2) it searches only its own user-generated and uploaded content rather than any video out there on the Internet.

Another well-known video search engine is Truveo. Like Google, Truveo utilizes a simple, user-friendly design that disguises depth and a thoroughness about locating Internet content. The no-frills homepage greets the user with a text box for keyword searching and five of the most popular categories beneath for browsing: News, Sports, TV Shows, Music, and Most Twittered. According to its website, some of the most trafficked online presences, notably those owned by AOL and Microsoft, employ Truveo as their video search engine of choice.

Despite also being very capable and comprehensive, Blinkx’s professed uniqueness lies not solely in presentation or in search options as in how it evaluates video content for accurate retrieval. According to its own description, Blinkx, unlike many search engines, looks not only at the text around a particular form of media to determine what it’s about -- a common method that can sometimes retrieve inaccurate results. Instead, Blinkx employs “speech recognition and video analysis software” that does not only scan text surrounding media to acquire a description but also, in a sense, listens and watches content itself to get a better idea about a video or other form of media, thus providing you with a hit that’s potentially closer to your target.

There are, of course, other great video search engines on the web. For comparison or curiosity’s sake, you could also check out Google Video, Clipblast, Yahoo! Video, or Bing, just to name a few. So, play around and see what entertaining, fun, or interesting content you can find. Just be careful – there’s so much out there that it might be difficult to pull yourself away!

Exercises:
1. Search for a particular video using both Truveo and Blinkx. Look for any similarities or differences in the results, and write about them in your blog.
2. Go to HCPL’s YouTube channel and take a look around. Discuss in your blog ideas for how your own branch video could add to the mix of searchable video content on the Internet.

HCPL Staff: Have you completed this exercise? Dont' forget to submit your Registration of Completion.

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