Trial and Error

Searching for Video? Go to Truveo

December 11, 2006 12:15 PM

I’ve got a new favorite site for video search. Truveo.

Video search is critical given the explosion of video on the Web. Unfortunately, few video search sites have found the magic formula that actually delivers you to the videos you want.

But I haven’t visited Truveo in a while, so I stop by for a test drive.

I plug in an easy search term—“Grey’s Anatomy.” I choose that show because it’s not only the most popular program on TV, it’s also one of the most searched for pieces of video, according to the heads of various video search sites.

And a truly amazing thing happens—the very first result on the search page is for ABC.com and a clip from the most recent episode of the show. This never happens! This is the first time in my searching that the top result for a TV show search on a video search service has been for the network’s Web site and for an officially sanctioned clip. Usually, the results on other video search sites have been for random clips—possibly unauthorized—on YouTube.

But I contend that when viewers search for TV show video they want— no surprise—video from that TV show. And the next several clips on Truveo are from the show too, and from ABC.com

Come back tomorrow and I’ll run some more tests on Truveo.