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Microsoft has just bagged Videosurf search engine for $70m. California-based VideoSurf, described as a “video discovery” company, which Microsoft will embed into Xbox 360 ecosystem and “evolve” entertainment search, it said yesterday.
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Founded in 2006, VideoSurf has back-end computer vision technology that “sees” frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, meaning if you want to watch a TV show like say, ‘The Sporanos’ or a movie like Avatar or Harry Potter, results should appears within seconds from various contents providers.
The clever engine lets gamers search for content by images, meaning gamers can take pictures of content they want to watch and lets the surf technology do the rest.
Microsoft plans to integrate the entertainment engine on Xbox LIVE and the Xbox 360 ecosystem, over time.
“VideoSurf’s content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform,” said Alex Garden, director of Xbox Live for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft.
It will add to Microsoft’s Bing search engine tool and enable gamers to search for videos, TV and music from Zune by voice, launched on Xbox Live in the coming weeks, says Microsoft.
And ditto for Kinect for Xbox 360 also.
“We are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results.”
And the acquisition, said to cost the Redmond based giant US$70 million, couldn’t come at a better time.
Microsoft is about to bring 40 global TV providers to Xbox LIVE, including Bravo, HBO GO, BBC and ZDF to roll out TV shows and other entertainment.
VideoSurf has some well known backers backers including Cheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO and former US vice president Al Gore.
