Blinkx - A Video Search Engine
Blinkx is the world's largest video search engine. According to an article from PC Advisor, Blinkx has signed more than 350 media partnerships, including deals with several national broadcasters, and the service offers more than 26 million hours of video. Users can also upload their own content (much like Youtube), making it great for sharing personal videos with hundreds of thousands of viewers. The video search itself aims to emphasize user experience while also giving the most relevant results by using some of the industry's most innovative and advanced technology.
The founder
For those of you who are curious, here is an excerpt about Suranga Chandratillake, the founder of the Blinkx search engine, from an online review:
The founder of Blinkx is Suranga Chandratillake, and he continues to serve the company as its CEO. Mr. Chandratillake is a seasoned electronics entrepreneur with over ten years of experience in the industry. After founding Blinkx in 2004 and launching it to the public in 2005, Blinkx enjoyed amazing success early in its life and was eventually publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, where it continues to be traded to this day. Mr. Chandratillake is an expert on both the internet and TV and has the knowledge and has developed technologies to merge the two media together. Furthermore, Mr. Chandratillake also has expertise in interactive TV and online advertising. Along with this and other experiences in the field, Mr. Chandratillake is truly a pioneer in the online entertainment industry.
Why does Blinkx believe it's more special than other search engines?
Here's what the creators have to say:
Unlike other multimedia search engines that attempt to re-purpose technology built for the Text Web, blinkx uses a unique combination of patented conceptual search, speech recognition and video analysis software to efficiently, automatically and accurately find and qualify online video. Today, blinkx is the world’s largest single index of rich media content on the Web, delivering more content from a broader range of sources than either Google or Yahoo!
How to Use a Query
A query refers to what a user enters into a "search box" and is perhaps the most important aspect of a search engine. It is essential for a query to manipulate a number of tools to help the user find the most relevant results. Usually, this means that the user has to use a somewhat complex query to achieve their goal. One thing that's truly great about Blinkx's search tool is that it is not limited to the Latin alphabet. The search engine's complex technology allows users to search for videos in other languages Let's take a look at some of Blinkx's tools.
Tools and the Advanced Search
Search terms
- "AND": Using "AND" in your query will search for the word(s)/phrase(s) that come both before and after the search term "AND." For example, searching 'AND snakes' will search for videos that have the words 'cobras' and 'snakes'
- "OR": Using "OR" in your query will search for the word(s)/phrase(s) that come either before or after the search term "OR." For example, searching 'audi OR bmw' will search for videos with either the word 'audi' or 'bmw,' but not necessarily both.
- "NOT": Using "NOT" in your query will exempt all results with the word(s)/phrase(s) the proceeds the "NOT" search term. For example, searching 'amusement parks NOT "six flags"' will search for videos with the words 'amusement parks' but exempt results with the phrase "six flags."
- "": Using "" will group words together within a query. For example, searching for "cell phone" will search for the phrase "cell phone" as opposed to searching for both words individually.
- channel: Using "channel: will search for channels that are relevant to the query. This feature will be discussed later in the analysis.
Advanced Search
The advanced search feature in blinkx is a very useful feature, especially for users who aren't familiar with the more complicated syntax. In this way, the advanced search feature helps the user generate a complex search query with additional options. Users can choose to search for exact phrases, multiple words, while also exempting other words or phrases. The advanced search also allows to user to search by relevance or by date. This can be an important tool if the goal of the query is to produce current results. The Blinkx advanced search feature also allows the search to filter between different types of media by allowing the user to choose a search with only video or audio files. Probably one of the most intriguing features of the advanced search is the engine's ability to filter between direct play and full direct play videos. The Blinkx search engine gives users a "preview" of each video by playing all the videos at once within the results page. However, some results play the full video (full direct play), which distinguishes them from the other results. Read further for an in-depth view of this feature.
Features - A Guide
Introduction to Direct Play
The Direct Play feature is one that makes blinkx one of the most unique video search engines there are. Many video search engines allow users to scroll over and preview a video, but blinkx is the only search engine that previews every single result at the same time without any sort of signal from the user. There are two types of direct play:
- Direct Play: This form of Direct Play gives the user a brief 10-second preview of the video result
- Full Direct Play: Thie form of Direct Play plays the entire video from start to finish for the user in the search results
The Direct Play feature can very useful when the user is attempting to distinguish relevant results from the irrelevant ones. However, depending on the person, they can also serve as a distraction. It's really a matter of personal preference, but the preview makes the results come to life.
Wall it!
A unique feature of the Blinkx search engine is it's ability to make a "wall" of search results. On the home page, the user can find two search options beside the search bar. After entering a query and hitting the "Wall It!" option, the search engine creates a wall that consists of the previews of the first 25 search results to create a beautiful display for the user. The first search result is automatically played in a video player beside the giant wall of videos. Reinforced by the "Wall It!" option, Blinkx is (as far as I know) the only video search engine of its kind. What's so great about this feature?
- Users can embed the wall on any page, meaning that a page can display an entire wall of videos through blinkx
- Users can email the wall to other users, which makes sharing results better than ever before
- The display is very interactive and allows the user to scroll over videos to enlarge their display
- It's cool!
Movie Mode and Channels
Movie Mode
Blinkx allows users to watch the results continuously, beginning with the first result and continuing to the last result of that particular page. In this way, the user can flip back and forth between results (almost like a tv). Each video display also has a description and source at the bottom of the page for the user to use as a reference. The Movie Mode is very convenient for flipping through results.
Channels
Channels are groups of videos created by the Blinkx search engine that are relevant to your search or a single topic (a number of which are displayed on the main page). Here is a more detailed description from the "About Section" of the search engine.
There are many channels within blinkx. Channels are videos that have been grouped together by their context or by the company where the video resides. In advanced search, you can search by company names such as BBC or Rollingstone. When you do a search, "Matching Channels" are channels that contextually match your search. It's kind of like "If you are interested in this, why not check out this?"
There are numerous categories of channels that even include real television networks. The sophisticated technology behind the Blinkx search engine allows users to create an endless list of channels. On the homepage, users can also find "inform me" and "entertain me" tabs, which are special playlists created for users to update them on current news (inform me) or amuse them (entertain me) with interesting videos. Furthermore, these lists are constantly updated, thus providing users with the most current information and newest viral videos. The channel is probably one of the best features of the Blinkx video search because it allows users to mix and match videos from a giant database to create unique playlists which they can share with other users.
The Blinkx Remote
This is probably one of the most touted features of the Blinkx search engine. The Blinkx remote acts as a virtual remote that allows the user to search through a comprehensive list of television networks and shows which they can watch right online. Of course, being the largest video search engine on the internet doesn't bode well with a large plethora of copyright laws when it comes to live streaming, but Blinkx still manages to provide a considerable amount of video for the user. The Blinkx remote is simple: it works like a search engine, except it returns results from videos that are broadcast on television. It's a very cool feature that surpasses the usefulness of numerous other search engines. The Blinkx remote also allows the user to filter searches by genre and by network. In addition to television shows, users can search for a GIANT list of movies. In other words, this feature of the Blinkx search engine simply can't be beat.
Experimentation/Demonstration of Useful Features
Blinkx boasts one of the most comprehensive and advanced search technology in the industry. Now that you know how to use Blinkx's different features, I'm going to demonstrate their varying degrees of usefulness by testing several queries below.
Search #1
- It will probably serve us better to start with something basic. Let's try this query
- Analyzing the results, we can already recognize one of the uses of the Blinkx search engine. The engine has the unique ability to search within videos which clearly helps the user find more relevant results. Although most of the results don't actually include the words "american football" in either the title or description, the engine was still able to find very relevant videos.
- Let's try another query.
Search #2
- Let's experiment with a more complex query this time. Try this query
- Again, we get very good results. It is interesting to note the number of different sources the Blinkx search engine utilizes. Scroll through each page and just scan the different sources that appear. There are a lot!
- It is also important to note the different types of videos that are returned. There are documentaries, news stories and even personal opinion videos about natural disasters. That's definitely a great variety!
- Let's look at some of the other features
Search #3 - Wall It!
- Let's try using the Wall It! feature. Think about what query would be interesting on a giant display of videos. We're going to look at a query more relevant to the amusement park industry.
- Have you ever felt like you were riding several rollercoasters at once? Me neither.
- It's useful to scroll over each video and determine which results are more relevant than others.
- By using the video player on the right, try flipping through individual videos. This feature is really useful if you don't feel like tediously reading through each and every description of a video like other search engines.
- Has a video search ever been more interactive?
Search #4 - Blinkx Remote
- Let's try one of Blinkx's best features: the remote. First, navigate to the remote page.
- Now that you're on the page, take a look at the search bar. Choose "comedy" under genre. Now, try this query
- Wow! The correct show was found immediately.
- The Blinkx remote offers a considerably lengthy description and convenient display for our query.
- There is a link to imdb for more information
- Look at the comments that are displayed at the very bottom of the video. It seems that some users complain that the links are not full episodes. There's our first red flag.
- Overall, the Blinkx remote is an excellent resource, but we are probably better off using other video streaming sites.
Analyzing The Results
Overall, I was very satisfied with the quality of my searches. I was also intrigued by how interactive the Blinkx search engine really is. Here are some of my final thoughts:
- Blinkx search technology offers unique results that would otherwise be difficult to find on other search engines
- The search engine utilizes numerous sources to find the best videos for each query
- In comparison to most other video search engines, it is easy for the user to distinguish relevant videos from irrelevant ones because of the combination of visual (direct play) and literal aids within the search results
- It is very easy to navigate from video to video within the search results
- Users can create a playlist from the search results by simply dragging a result into the playlist (which begins as an empty list after a query is processed)
- The Blinkx search engine makes it easy to share videos in a variety of forms
- The Wall It! feature is probably one of the best that any video search engine has to offer
- The Blinkx remote is a great feature, but it can still use a lot of improvement. There aren't as many quality video links as other video streaming websites.
- There is a reason that Blinkx is one of the best (although I wasn't aware of it before doing this analysis). Search results are returned pretty fast considering the type of information and the number of sources that the search engine utilizes. Furthermore, the display for results is very convenient and easy to use.
Blinkx vs. Truveo
The Truveo Search Engine
Truveo is a deep-web video search engine similar to Blinkx. Some of its best assets are its convenient displays and clear organization; It is easy for users to navigate the website and find the videos they need, which has also made it one of the most successful search engines in the industry. Here is a description of the search engine from the Truveo website:
"Truveo video search lets you search and find videos from across the Web. Use Truveo to find all types of online video including hit television shows, full-length movies, breaking news clips, sports highlights, music videos, or the latest viral videos. If you are looking for a specific video, Truveo video search can help you find exactly the video you want. Truveo can also help you browse through video across the web and discover new videos that you might like."
A Comparison
General Video Search
As advanced a search engine Blinkx is, I found it lacking in certain search features. Truveo offers tabs which sort by popularity, top rating and rank. Although this may not seem like much, user feedback is an excellent way of determining which videos are good and which are not, especially considering the fact that each of these search engines get several hundred thousand users per month.
Although Truveo offers better direct search features, I found many of Blinkx's features to be quite useful as well. As you may recall, Blinkx owns the largest database of videos on the internet. How does this play in its favor? Blinkx has advanced search technology that looks "inside" every single one of these videos. However, I think I should test Blinkx's ability to provide better search results both in quality and quantity against actual queries.
Query #1
- I searched [amusement theme park industry] using each video search engines. For your reference, here is the Blinkx query. Here is the corresponding Truveo query.
- Blinkx returned 48,000 videos. Truveo returned 32. Big, big difference.
- Truveo's first 6 results were significantly better than those of Blinkx. However, Blinkx returned better overall search results.
- It is MUCH easier to distinguish the good videos from the bad using Blinkx's search engine because each video comes with a preview. However, Truveo doesn't provide any such feature. I think this is a huge advantage for Blinkx.
- Truveo allows the user to organize videos by "most popular," "most recent," "highest rated" and "top ranked" after the search results have been returned. Compare this to Blinkx's ability to sort by "relevance" and "date." Since I personally don't find sorting by date to be of much use, I would give a considerable edge to Truveo.
Query #2
- Let's try something a little bit more complex. I'm going to search ["global warming" world]. For your reference, here is the Blinkx query. Here is the corresponding Truveo query.
- Blinkx returned 150,000 videos. Truveo returned 10,674.
- Using this particular query, I found Truveo's search results to be considerably better than those of Blinkx.
- My final verdict: Even with all of its incredible search features, Blinkx is less reliable than Truveo as a search engine.
Categories and Channels
Both the Blinkx and Truveo search engines have the ability to organize search results by categories and channels. I think this is a significant feature because both Blinkx and Truveo are large video databases and the ability to organize videos well is a must. Still, these features are vary considerably between each of them. Below is a list that highlights some of these differences:
- Blinkx has a very organized list of channels and categories to search with. This menu is accessible through the "browse blinkx" drop-down box, which you can find to the right of the search box. For your reference, this is also where you can find the advanced search and blinkx remote. When you actually look at the menu, you'll notice the incredibly large number of channels that blinkx makes available to the user. One of the flaws I found with these two features, however, was the inability to incorporate more than one channel or category into a search. This makes it difficult for the user to obtain search results based on sets of channels.
- Truveo has a less advanced organization feature when it comes to channels and categories. However, contrary to Blinkx, the search engine DOES offer the user the ability to return search results using sets of multiple channels. When you enter a query into the search box and click enter, Truveo will return a results page which will feature a filter for channels and categories on the left side. The filter is set-up as a checklist (not as convenient as Blinkx, but very usable). Unfortunately, sometimes the search results produce a large number of channels. In order to organize results by only one or two channels, configuring the checklist can be a very tedious process.
- Blinkx offers a significantly larger number of channels in comparison to Truveo (which is supported by the fact that it IS the largest video database in the world). However, it is much easier to access the feature on Truveo; filtering is much more straightforward.
- Personally, I prefer using Bilnkx's channels feature because it is much more organized. However, while looking for good search results, I prefer Truveo's convenient filtering system over Blinkx's playlists.
TV Shows and Movies
Truveo and Blinkx both allow the user to search for videos corresponding to specific TV shows. However, I think that Blinkx offers a vastly superior search for tv shows in comparison to Truveo. The Blinkx remote feature is a comprehensive search engine that allows the user to search for any television show OR movie. Unlike Blinkx, Truveo also does not offer advanced search features for this particular type of search. Therefore, I would recommend using Blinkx when searching TV shows (or Hulu which is clearly superior to both).
Conclusion - A Final Comparison
The Blinkx and Truveo search engines both displayed two different styles of searching, which ultimately makes user preference key in determining which one is superior. Truveo offers a wide array of advanced search features, which I feel make it the better SEARCH ENGINE. Although Blinkx has the direct play feature, as well as a significantly larger database, Truveo consistenly returned better search results, as well as convenient methods for filtering them. Ultimately, I feel that Truveo has a better video search. However, if you're just looking to pass the time, Blinkx offers a countless number of features that will keep you busy for hours. I was also very impressed with it's "Wall-it" feature, which you can even embed on other web pages (although wikidot has yet to support this feature). Therefore, I think that Blinkx is the superior video search for entertainment purposes.
