August 28, 2007
AOL Truveo Developing a Reputation in Online Video Search

As the growth in online video proliferates, despite some people's unsatisfactory experiences with downloading as mentioned here, video search becomes a more and more important function. With powerhouses like Google providing less-than-satisfactory results for video search, there is a gap in the field that several companies have been looking to fill.

Of late, most of the attention has been going to AOL's Truveo. Truveo, which has been powering a variety of online video sites with search functions, has now relaunched as its own more boldly branded site, hoping to fill the dearth of reliable online video search options by putting greater emphasis on its presence in online video search.

Daisy Whitney with TelevisionWeek points out that "search traffic has increased eightfold in the last six months" for Truveo and that Truveo has been serving "More than 40 million unique visitors a month across the sites it powers.

Meanwhile, WebProNews' David A. Utter writes about the increasing confidence Truveo's management has about where they stand in relation to the current online video market. He does a comparison on contemporary news events--trapped minors and Karl Rove's resignation, finding that "Truveo has current video results from high-quality sources for each. Google Video Search seems lost, with its first page of Rove results dominated by YouTube videos of one of the most powerful people in American politics rapping at a correspondents' dinner."

When I wrote about AOL Video's beta version launching more than a year ago, I pointed out that the company ragged about "having the most powerful video search engine on the Internet."

Also, see this post about VeohTV from back in June that points out a variety of differences between online search like Truveo and VeohTV, which creates a centralized program that all Internet video will be watched through. The question here is whether benefit will come in pointing the way to videos on individual sites or featuring them all in a centralized player.

Also, see this post on PureVideo Networks' own plans for video search services.