Video Search : Next Frontier In Search

(Via Wired)The internet can be a convenient resource for finding much-talked-about events on video. Video clips of high-profile moments have sent millions of net users scrambling to search engines for footage. Internet users who don't patronize peer-to-peer sites had few options for tracking down video content outside of entering a query in a standard search box.Large net portals and a handful of smaller sites are looking to change that. Yahoo, Google and MSN have each rolled out services designed to make it easier to upload or locate video online. The portals' rollouts come as a handful of startups and independent film sites are creating tools to make putting video online nearly as simple as publishing text. Yahoo launched a beta version of a service called Media RSS that lets anyone with footage submit videos for distribution. This year, Yahoo is projecting that the number of videos streamed over the web will grow by nearly 50 percent from last year. Net users are expected to stream more than 21 billion videos in 2005, up from 14.2 billion last year.
Google is currently running a beta version of an upload program that lets anyone submit videos electronically to its Google Video site, so long as they own the rights to the work. The company said the videos will be made available on its video search site, but has not specified a date. Meanwhile, Microsoft's MSN, which launched its own video search site last fall, has been steadily beefing up its film offerings. Earlier this month, the company announced an agreement to publish videos distributed by streaming provider Ifilm. People are now adding videos to dating site profiles, uploading homemade movies, and putting film snippets on social-networking sites like Myspace.com at an ever-accelerating pace. However, he believes that programs for editing video and publishing it online are not yet user-friendly enough to appeal to most internet users. There are some groups working on solutions to make uploading a video as easy as blogging.