The Video Web is growing fast, and it's amazing to think that You Tube is still only three years old. The value of media rich content is on the rise as automated text blogs come online. Text can be faked unlike an authentic voice or face, but like the early days of the web it is still hard to find that perfect clip to embed. For both viewers and publishers Video Search Tools are key, as is Video Search Engine Optimisation or VSEO.The Video Web is growing fast, and it's amazing to think that You Tube is still only three years old. The value of media rich content is on the rise as automated text blogs come online. Text can be faked unlike an authentic voice or face, but like the early days of the web it is still hard to find that perfect clip to embed. For both viewers and publishers Video Search Tools are key, as is Video Search Engine Optimisation or VSEO.One of the first places to start in your search for the perfect clip is Google Video. As well as searching the You Tube archives it also pulls longer clips from Google Video, and they still seem to be accepting videos of any length, unlike the ten minute limit on You Tube chanels. New features on You Tube include the ability to add annotations, hot spots and links to other videos. I have also found a great Video Bar Widget buried deep in the You Tube API Developer pages, that allows you to embed video clips on your site by channel or keyword using the Video Bar Wizard.

You Tube still has the largest number of daily eyeballs and even a small channel like the g33k show in New Zealand can serve 33,000 + videos in their first eight weeks. It's not just short form podular content that is proving popular, as other new channels such as Adikted.tv in Australia are finding viewers are happy to watch full length music concerts online.

Other video search tools to try are Blinkx.com which offers over 26 million hours of video to search, and you can also drag your results into a playlist. Pixsy also allows you to search millions of pictures and video, and Vizhole is another tool that offers all in one video search.

One hot tool still in private Beta but hopeful available to ordinary netizens soon is Video Surf. It's probably the best search tool for video I have come across, giving comprehensive results and the ability to view a clip by ALL frames, BEST or Faces Only. The ability to search for faces is the clever bit and is a major step forward towards a multimedia semantic web.

"Using patent-pending computer vision algorithms that can actually see the video's content, VideoSurf serves up more relevant
results for your queries and offers a new, visual way for you to interact with the video set returned. You can refine your results based on the people who actually appear in the videos and pinpoint the specific moments you're interested in watching or sharing with your friends.

The average You Tube video gets around 100 video views a year so for creatives making and uploading video content Video Search Engine Optimisation is very important. There are some great tips in this post at ReelSEO which covers Video SEO Tips, Video Search Marketing, & Online Video Trends.

They share some great VSEO Tips from a recent session with experts from the industry. What seems to drive the most audience to a You Tube clip is the related videos drawn from the keywords you choose. As SEO expert Greg Jarboe says:

"It's not just explicit sharing that drives video views, but consumption patterns around related videos and embedding videos. Looking at a popular YouTube video featuring basketball player Allen Iverson:
13% of views came from you tube search, 75% came from related videos.

Most of the speakers recommended Tube Mogul to upload videos across the main video hosting platforms, and send back viewer metrics. As for any Search Engine Optimisation you need to post clips using relevant meta data, and keywords to improve your search engine ranking.

You can watch and listen to a Flowgram of Video Search with MsBehaviour on Kiwi Fm, or listen to an audio podcast.

Read more MsBehaviour Files

As well as being TBI's strategist & columnist, MsBehaviour is Producer & Presenter of the g33k show. She is also Managing Directrix of Mohawk Media, which produces internet TV, 3D Animation & Machinima.

02/10/08