AOL Rolls Out Video Search Upgrades

America Online this week is rolling out upgrades to its Video Search engine, expanding the index with 1.8 million videos from its recent acquisition of Truveo. The content joins 20,000 original and licensed videos, as well as 2.5 million videos indexed through AOL's Singingfish search product.

Truveo seeks out video content on the Web using a method called "Visual Crawling." AOL says it was interested in the way Truveo discovers a wider range of new videos and related information from dynamic Web pages, calling the company a "hidden gem."

AOL has additionally streamlined the presentation of search results, and added AOL Hi-Q Videos, which it says are DVD quality and available free of charge. The Hi-Q videos will utilize P2P technology Kontiki, which requires users to share the content as they view it. Only Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP is currently supported.

Full-length episodes of popular programs such as Welcome Back Kotter, Beetlejuice, Lois & Clark, La Femme Nikita and Growing Pains will be listed in search results. 15- and 30-second ad spots will be mixed into the video, but limited to 1-2 minutes of advertising for every 30-minute show.

AOL is taking a slightly different approach from competitor Google by mixing in content offered elsewhere on the Web with its own video clips. Google recently began offering paid video of television shows and NBA games, in addition to content uploaded directly by users.

"We believe the integration of Truveo's powerful technology will firmly establish AOL Video Search as the go-to destination to find and discover online video content," an AOL spokesperson told BetaNews. "AOL Video Search will continually evolve to meet the growing needs of online consumers."