More Activity in Store for Online Video By: Jason Hahn - Topic: Web - Date: October 13, 2006

It's clear that a big part of the aftershocks from the Google/YouTube transaction will be the enhancement of video search.  Google is best known for its superior search algorithms in traditional search engine queries, but will they be able to carry this over into the online video realm?

Probably.  But as this article points out, there are a handful of means to this end.  Google could develop this technology in-house, license technologies, or just buy up video search companies.

There are a few good ones out there, including Blinkx and Metacafe, as the article mentions, as well as recently partnered Pixsy and PureVideo, which teamed up on Monday, the very same day the horribly dubbed "GooTube" made its triumphant splash.

The article also talks about enhancing video search using speech-recognition as well as picture-recognition.

This is all fine and dandy for lovers of online video, but what's the real reason Google would even think of being so kind to us?

Money.

Let's not forget that Google is always advertiser-minded, and would like nothing less than to create or purchase more specific and effective video search technologies in order to offer advertisers a more focused outlet to better reach their intended audiences.

It's kind of like how television networks only care about popular television shows because it increases the possibility that they'll have advertisers willing to pay big dollars to get a time slot during those beloved shows.

At least, that's how I've always looked at it.

Nevertheless, the coming months could be active and exciting for these smaller, overshadowed video search startups, which are probably licking their chops at the prospect of holding hands with the big boys that have hogged all the attention up until now.