April 26th, 2007 by Lloyd Gofton
Well, not quite, but blinkx certainly think they’ve got the jump on Google in terms of video search, and according to Rick Wray’s piece on MediaGuardian today, blinkx is about to be demerged from Autonomy in preparation for a listing on AIM (Alternative Investment Market).
The Press release confirms blinkx will join forces with Autonomy’s consumer division as part of the new blinkx company and develop a video-based search product for the consumer market.
In a quote from the release, Suranga Chandratillake, Chief Executive Officer of blinkx, confirmed: “The development of television, for example, is at a pivotal moment - technologies such as IPTV, on-demand, non-linear, personalisation and implicit query are expected to significantly change how consumers interact with content. Autonomy’s technology made it the world leader in the enterprise space, and we believe the same technology arms blinkx for success in this new, complex rich media environment.”
Apparently blinkx already allows internet users to search more than 7m hours of video and UGC, and it has search deals with 200 media partners including MTV and the New York Times.
Video is certainly a key consideration for search, and blinkx is ahead of the game, taking it in a slightly new direction.
However, the future of search must consider text-based, video and social media searches, so although I don’t think this is ‘the answer’, it is certainly an interesting avenue to investigate.
It will be fascinating to see how this develops, and to see how Google gets involved. Maybe another future acquisition if all goes well? But in reality, I suspect Google is quite well covered in video search considering recent acquisitions.
