New Search Service from TVEyes Offers Free Keyword Search Of Some Web-Based TV News Content & Lots More Video Search
A new free service from multimedia search engine TVEyes allows a searcher to keyword search each and every word spoken during tv news segment from well-known news organizations. TVEyes is utilzing voice recognition technology to create a “Spoken Word Index” that makes these programs keyword searchable.
In this post, we’ll take a look at what’s new from TVEyes, discuss their fee-based service, look at Podscope (also from TVEyes), and look at some of the many services and companies that offer various forms of audio and video search services and technology.
Free: TV News Webcast Keyword Search
TVEyes is introducing a new free service that allows searchers to keyword search every word spoken on news segments and newscasts from well-known news organizations.
You’ll find the search box on the TVEyes home page. Again, this is free service. The login on the right side of the page is for their fee-based (aka professional) service. More on that in a moment. I didn’t spot an actual text transcript next to each clip but a box with direct link(s) to the snippet(s) where your search terms words are spoken is clearly visible. The text next to most entries is clip summary info.
Searching is simple and straightforward. Enter your keywords and go. Results can be sorted by relevance or data. A spokesperson told me that the database is constantly updates. Don’t forget that the words your searching are generated for the database using voice recognition technology. It’s far from perfect technology (independent of provider) but it’s improving all of the time. However, don’t be surprised if you find errors.
Where does the content come from? You’ll can view (or soon view) material from:
The service is just getting up to speed and when I tested it this evening and I didn’t spot material from several of these sources. I think giving them a bit more to get the service up and running would be fair before really kicking the tires. Note: On Friday night I did experience a few times when the service was unavailable. Very likely an issue with the service just coming online.
Again, you’re able to keyword search content that’s made available on the open web. Not every segment from every news program is placed on the web. Also, most of these sources are available via other sites.
What TVEyes brings to the table is the ability to search every word spoken and then go directly to that specific portion(s) of the video. BlinkxTV also offers keyword search of some of their video content. In some cases the actual transcript can also be seen.
Early next week I’ll do my best to learn about any advanced syntax and options ability to limit or sort to a specific source, geographic viewing limitations, etc. I’ll also ask how long material remains available. My guess is that if the content producer keeps the clip online, TVEyes will keep it accessible in their database. In many respects this news service is a very useful public showcase for the TVEyes fee-based service.
TVEyes for a Fee, Very Useful
Those of you who read the blog on a regular basis probably recognize the name TVEyes. In fact, I’ve mentioned them many times since I started working with Danny and Chris on the SEW Blog.
The primary service is available by subscription. It’s used in many industries including media and public relations, media organizations, and educational institutions to name just a few.
The fee-based TVEyes also know as TVEyes Professional offers near real-time (delayed by only a couple of minutes) searchable transcripts (created in many cases using closed captioning) of television programming on most U.S. major networks, local stations throughout the U.S., and a selection of stations around the world like BBC1, CBC Newsworld, and Al Jazeera (English language service). A free trial is available and IMHO, worth a look if having access to this material is of value to you and/or your organization.
I’ve mentioned TVEyes several times in the past few weeks including last Saturday when I put together a brief look at Danny’s appearance on ABC’s Nightline.
Moments after Danny’s appearance was over I headed to my computer, logged on to TVEyes, and within seconds was able to access the full transcript (not available with the free service) and view the video of Danny on the show. The fee-based service offers email alerts so, when a name, word, company, etc. is mentioned on the air, the subscriber is notified within minutes of the airing. Very cool. Btw, fee-based service also offers some radio transcripts via their Radio Ears service.
Podcast Search from Podscope
TVEyes is the company that powers Podscope. This service, launched last April lets users keyword search podcasts using speech recognition technology (again it’s not a perfect transcript). Podscope also makes other video and audio content (both submitted by users and found via their crawl) keyword searchable. More about Podscope here. Last September, we learned that Podscope will power podcast search on AOL. Finally, in December Podscope began offering keyword-based RSS feeds. In other words, when the keywords you select are mentioned in a podcast, you’re notified via RSS. Here’s a Robin Good interview with the man in charge of TVEyes/Podcast, David Ives.
Partnership with Yahoo
Another announcement that TVEyes made about a year ago was a partnership with Yahoo to provide keyword searching of video business news from Bloomberg Business Television. Using Yahoo Video Search, you’re able to keyword search Bloomberg programming and then view online. To limit your search using Yahoo Video to only Bloomberg content use the syntax, site:tveyes.com [keywords].
Other Players in Both the Free and Fee-Based Space
I could do many more blog posts on other services that offer something similar. For now, a look at just a few of them.
Free Services
Bow, I must also mention the amazing archive of audio content from National Public Radio. Just about every major show is available free back to 1996. Transcript search is not available (I hope one day it will be) but each segment from each program is searched using a synopsis of the show. You can also browse by date and program title.
Also, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service, US) offers transcript search video of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (very useful), Washington Week in Review and several other programs. I have a list here. Technolgy from Virage.
Fee-Based Services
For historical content from the past 100 years, Newsplayeris wonderful and very inexpensive.
Both companies offer near real-time television search, alerts, and other tools.
Finally
By NO stretch of the imagination is this anything close to a complete list of video services. Hundreds more exist. These are just a few services and technology providers that came quickly to mind. More soon.
Postscript:
In case you’re wondering what happened to the television transcripts that were once a part of the Google Video service, they are no longer available (at least for the time being). More on topic topic in this post.