Google Combining Video with Search Results: Halfway There.

Posted on May 17, 2007

Google’s uber search across text, images and now video has a lot of people talking, including the New York Times. But the enthusiasm ignores how people really use search.

Searching includes not only finding results, but also figuring out which results you want. Google’s text search does a good job of highlighting a web page to help you determine which results fit your needs. People then “ping-pong” back and forth between search results and web pages to find what they’re looking for. This works because most of us can scan text very quickly.

Applying this experience to video is a disaster. You shouldn’t have to spend 3 minutes (the average length of a YouTube clip) watching a video to see if it is the one you want. In our research we’ve found the median viewing (or listening) time for a show is less than 10 seconds; when people don’t see what they want, they move on. So if you’re looking for a gem that is buried a minute into the show, forget it. It just doesn’t get found.

At Pluggd, we chunk audio and video. What’s a chunk? The part you want. We are the only ones that let you jump right to the tasty chunk you are looking for. A three minute video can feel like an eternity, which is why so many people bail in that first 10 seconds. We just don’t think you should have to sit around and wait for the good parts.

Pluggd is on a mission to chunk all video and audio for bite-sized consumption. More to come.

- Alex Castro

Comments

11 Responses to “Google Combining Video with Search Results: Halfway There.”

  1. Christopher S. Penn on May 17th, 2007 5:21 pm

    If you’re able to detect “hot” or not areas of video for textual contents in a non-text format, does that mean the algorithm is essentially doing speech-to-text on demand? If so, in addition to the heat map of the file, wouldn’t it make sense to display in a box above or below the heat map the machine’s working translation for that region, so that you can scan it just as quickly as if it were text?

  2. Evan Hamilton on May 17th, 2007 5:36 pm

    Do you guys host these clips only on your site or can this search youtube videos, etc? That would be a killer app…might be something I used regularly.

    -Evan Hamilton
    http://blog.evanhamilton.com
    http://www.monstersarenotmyths.com

  3. Drew Olanoff, Unpluggd. » Pluggd on Video search: “Google Combining Video with Search Results: Halfway There.” on May 17th, 2007 7:22 pm

    […] http://blog.pluggd.com/2007/05/17/google-combining-video-with-search-results-halfway-there/ You can also bookmark this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos […]

  4. Clintus McGintus on May 17th, 2007 10:35 pm

    Pluggd’s search ability’s are light years ahead of the game. I have no doubt that even when google releases theirs it won’t compare to what you guys have here. I never really listened to podcasts before it. I’ll admit I still don’t listen to as many as I would like, but when I do, I listen to them on Pluggd because I find what I’m interested in.

    Keep up the good work yo!

  5. Schmidt on May 18th, 2007 9:01 am

    I’ve used pluggd a few times before with their amazing search capabilities for audio. I have to say I’m pretty stoked to see this for video.
    I guess this would help lead pluggd to being the google of audio and video. Sounds killer!

  6. Adam Ostrow on May 18th, 2007 9:07 am

    I can’t wait to see what you guys do with video. Your approach seems like it will save tons of time for both the casual viewer and hopefully for the vlogger/journalist as well looking to get right to the clip they need for cutting and remixing.

  7. drew olanoff on May 23rd, 2007 9:07 pm

    Thanks for the comments everyone, we appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

    Chris P. - We are really focused on the user experience as far as content goes online. As we get people using our technology, we’re going to be open to feedback based on their experiences. I definitely will ask you to come back for that and will want to follow up with you soon thereafter.

    Evan - We’re not hosting any content, what we’re doing is showing you a chunk that may interest you based on what you search on.

    Clint, Schmidt, and Adam, thanks for the comments. Keep a look out for some more stuff soon!

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  10. Moderate Sunny on August 23rd, 2008 12:18 pm

    Hey !

    sounds killer, can anyone tell me how these things will work. I mean video in search stuff??

    Regards
    Moderate Sunny
    http://www.zohrasarwari.com

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