Blinkx signs with Infospace

Binkx has signed a deal with Infospace that will see the video search service be used on Infospace sites, starting with recently launched Webfetchpro. The deal, which comes a month after Blinkx partnered with MSN to power some parts of its Live.com site, shows the importance that video is now playing in the sharing of information online.

Suranga Chandratillake, Blinkx co-founder, comments:
"What we're going to see on the web now is this elevation of video search...
alongside the other main search verticals like 'web', 'news' and 'images'," said Chandratillake.

We may also ponder whether Blinkx's business model is increasingly to sell video search technology to sites rather than being an aggreagator itself:

Dominic Trigg, Infospace VP, confirmed that the partnership has come about through Blinkx's expertise in the video market: "The case with us is that we've always gone out and got best of breed, rather than going with whatever technology might work best," said Trigg. "This is a massively growing market and we understand the importance it's playing not just in entertainment, but access to news and current affairs as well."

Infospace has also announced that it's signed a deal to power search for the London Stock Exchange website over the next two years.

We watch this development with great interest. There will increasingly be need for powerful search mechanisms that are more sophisticated than the text metadata search function that most video sites uses today, especially as more and more rich data goes online... So, when will Google buy BlinkX? Or will Google launch a more sophisitcated video search developed inhouse? Let's see shall we...