The Beet was in Beantown and stopped in to query Jason Pontin, editor in chief of MIT’s Technology Review, about searchable video in his Cambridge office. The feature, says Jason, means search has moved beyond the realm of text and into image, thanks to the use of meta tags, ala Flickr. Anyone – content creator, viewer, marketer – can imbed in the image and then find in a search. This feature has revolutionized video on the web, particularly with the explosive growth of Google Video, which was launched in the second half of 2005, and when iTunes began selling videocasts of TV shows.
LeeAnn Prescott, at iMedia Connection shares some compelling statistics about video search and hypothesizes where it might be going in 2006:
“Higher broadband penetration and smarter devices like video phones and video iPods mean there will be a greater demand for searchable video content in 2006. From October 2005 to December 2005, visits to Google Video increased by 169 percent, and visits to upstart video search service YouTube shot up 873 percent, mainly due to a video of a Saturday Night Live skit called "Lazy Sunday" that aired in December. Yahoo! Video Search remains the leader among video search services, and its market share of visits grew by a more modest 18 percent in the October – December period.” “Lazy Sunday” tipped, in the words of the Tipping Point, and it clearly illustrates the inherent power of video to drive traffic and create buzz for a website or company.
(Technology Review is a client of Plesser Holland, publisher of Beet.TV).
Tagging, Video Search, Online Video, Jason Pontin, YouTube
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