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Web Search Engines Lead Way to Video

Mar 2, 2008  •  Post A Comment

For the first time, people are finding more videos on the Web using search engines than through other means, such as referrals on MySpace. That change in audience behavior will force established media companies and Internet upstarts to adjust how they attract audiences to their shows.
The tipping point came in November, according to research from Web traffic measurement company Hitwise. Before that, word of mouth and happenstance governed how people found video, with e-mails and links leading the way to the hot clip of the day.
“Search has become the predominant method to find video,” said Bill Tancer, global head of research at Hitwise. “People are now looking for the videos in search. It’s gone from serendipitously finding videos or someone forwarding it to you, to actively going out and searching for it.”
The shift may give programmers, from the biggest TV networks down to the smallest Web studios, a chance to steal viewers from the video aggregators such as YouTube and social-networking sites. It may also mean that a search site such as Google (and indeed it may be Google) will emerge as the first stop for people as they seek out their favorite clips.
Going Mainstream
Consumers’ growing acceptance of search engines as a tool to find video also reflects how the use of video-search technology has gone mainstream, Mr. Tancer said. It’s the same phenomenon that a band might experience when more people Google its name rather than finding a link to its music in their e-mail inbox.
The speed of search’s rise in video reflects how quickly viewers can adapt. Only four months before Hitwise declared search the most-used path to video, an eMarketer study cited research from TNS and Online Publishers to say search placed last among methods of finding clips online.
As search habits change, some media companies are trying to get a step ahead by layering video throughout their Web sites. That can help consumers find segments even if they are searching more broadly for a program or a show.
When NBC Universal’s “Access Hollywood” relaunched its Web site earlier this year, it peppered video all over the site. Over the last few years, the Wall Street Journal has implemented a similar strategy.
Cable network Lifetime has done the same. This strategy can increase views: If a consumer searches for Lifetime show “Army Wives” on Google, he or she is more likely to find pages on Lifetime’s site with clips from the show.
As video search becomes mainstream, Google appears poised to win as the first stop for video searchers, Mr. Tancer said. “Google is going to win in anything search,” he said.
Most of the upstarts challenging Google with their own video-search technology are focusing on partnering with media companies to power video search on those sites. As a result, the video-search business appears to be crystallizing for the first time with Google leading as a gateway to the universe of Web video. That may leave smaller companies such as Blinkx, ClipBlast, Dabble, DigitalSmiths and EveryZing focusing on providing private-label search to sites with video.
“For the foreseeable future, Google will remain dominant in search,” said Greg Sterling, principal with Sterling Market Intelligence.
On top of Google’s reputation as a search source, the company has the built-in advantage of owning YouTube, which dwarfs other sites as a video destination. YouTube served 2.6 billion video streams in December, compared to 372 million for second-place Yahoo, according to Nielsen Online.
“Search is a conduit connecting users to a wide variety of content—video most certainly included,” said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman.
But Google’s search results for video do not always appear comprehensive, and many of the results are primarily for YouTube videos.
“I don’t think it’s game over yet. Google is benefiting from a huge traffic boost from YouTube,” Mr. Sterling said. “But this will be a long play and consumer behavior will evolve.”
It’s quite possible, however, that video search offers two guys working in their garage a chance to be the next Google. The evolution of the Web from a text to a video medium, and the advertising dollars waiting to flood into Internet video, could catapult an unknown over the established leaders.
“There is a ton of innovation happening in video search, and success in video search comes down to the speed and accuracy of the results returned,” said Will Richmond, a broadband video analyst who also writes the VideoNuze blog. “It’s still too early to know the answer to that question. The parallel is Google’s own rise.”
Finding a Niche
Most competitors are choosing to find a niche where they can flourish, rather than compete head-on with the biggest players. Digitalsmiths, for instance, is focused on video-ad targeting and is matching relevant ads to online video content through a partnership with Tremor Media.
The company also is positioning itself as a private-label video search provider. In that capacity, it has inked deals with several studios and media companies, said Ben Weinberger, CEO of Digitalsmiths.
AOL-owned Truveo is taking a similar tack. The company is still competing as a video-search destination, but has also struck deals to power search for Brightcove, Excite, CSTV, CNET and others.
The Truveo brand name appears in the video search boxes on those sites, which can help build Truveo as its own destination, said company president Pete Kocks.

37 Comments

  1. Very insightful and interesting take on the evolution of how society today conducts searches of video. I can think back to the day when the web consisted on primarily text and the only videos that could be viewed were sourced by big labeled companies and as for others, you either had to be there to see it or hope it’s on the 10 o’clock news. Before we know it, videos were knocking on our doorsteps and the freedom to express through the medium was just a click away.
    With all these ways to view, create and interact with video on the uprise these days, I’ve found my niche at Kyte.TV. I can create a channel and produce as many shows as I want on that channel [or more than one channel]. Whether it’s using the webcam to create a video on the spot, uploading an already made video, or sharing a slideshow of pictures from my recent vacation, among other things, Kyte gives me these abilities to broadcast myself. The search ability is handy when finding channels geared towards the users interest. Furthermore, the ability to create and view shows through a mobile phone takes video viewing to a whole new level. The chatting feature also allows instant feedback from friends and viewers of your channel; whether you’re at home in front of your computer or on-the-go with your mobile phone, you can chat right away.
    I highly recommend checking out Kyte.TV as your ticket into the video viewing and producing gateway!
    http://kyte.tv
    Feel free to check out my channel as well
    http://kyte.tv/unplugged

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