Yahoo Unwraps Video Search
By: Charles Farrar


SUNNYVALE, Calif. - As anticipated, Yahoo has launched a search service that will let users hunt video clips around the Internet in the same way as searches for Web sites, Web pages, and still images.

The beta site hunts files in Microsoft Windows Media, Apple QuickTime, and Real Media for now, and uses a format strikingly similar to Google's no-frills main site and search engine.

Yahoo's move seems to announce a small trend of search engines and Internet companies working on a similar service. Google, for example, has been reported as "secretly recording and indexing" television programs to make them searchable online; Microsoft is said to be developing a platform and search engine for video aimed at finding broadband or on-demand product; and, America Online updated its multimedia Singingfish to incorporate video search into the main AOL site, according to a published report.

"Video search is hitting prime time for a several reasons," ZDNet News said of the Yahoo beta. "Many people now have high-speed Internet access at home and work, and are warming to online video now that it's not excruciatingly choppy and slow. The costs of creating, hosting and delivering video have also dropped, making more multimedia available."

And, the news site said, the Internet is growing up and into, among other things, a full entertainment platform for television "via convergence devices that combine [personal computer] and TV features," for which video search will be critical.