Oh Wow! Blinkx Creates "Chattering Video Wall" Through Search

Please be patient while the wall loads - it's worth the wait!

This is quite amazing.  I was just sent this code from Suranga Chandratillake, founder of Blinkx, the San Francisco-based pioneering firm in the video search world.  In an earlier interview on Beet.TV, Suranga told us about the search technology that is used by Blinkx:  it's a  combination of things, including metadata and the analysis of audio.

They've just introduced this new functionality that allows you to search under a name or topic and you get search results. The search results can be assembled into these "walls."  The search pulls from a broad range of mainstream and consumer content sources. The "walls" can be shared by e-mail or by embedded code. The wall is alive although there are no sounds. The moving images are just sort of samples or loops of movement taken from the video.  Move your mouse over the images -- the rollover utility is very cool.

The search you see on this page is created under the terms "Andy Plesser".  (That young girl in the upper left is Lauren White, the star of my high school film from 1969 about drugs, sex, romance and alienation. The film's a big hit on Google - it's gotten some 33,00 views!)  The others are guests on Beet.TV.

OK, so what's significant about the "wall"?  Here's the deal: the search terms or phrases you put into the query are dynamic.  Meaning if you enter the term "Polar Bears" the "wall" will automatically update when Blinkx "spiders" a new video of a polar bear. 

And, you can put the "wall" onto your site or blog. Blinkx generates an embedded code, just like YouTube or Google Video, so a blogger or Web master can use that code to have a dynamic wall of relevant clips on a site.  As far as I understand it, you don't need to have a whole "wall"; you can use one of the column panels.

Blinkx searches videos where they are hosted.  In the case of Beet.TV, Blinkx searches Google Video where our videos reside, so when you click on an image from the "wall" you find the source site of the video.  Since it doesn't host the clips, presumably there are no copyright issues.

Amazing!

-- Andy Plesser

Suranga and I raise a toast to the future of video search and a few, more sentimental topics.  We got some time away from our keyboards and camcorders with a few other online video pioneers at Iron Horse Vineyards in Sonoma County earlier this month.

Bambi Francisco Weighs in With Video Search Round-up on what's new in the online video space and some of the smaller players who loom large.  Check out her column on AlwaysOn.