OVGuide.com Gets $5M

OVGuide.com, an aggregator for video sites, raised $5 million from Baroda Ventures, the investment firm of David Bohnett, founder of GeoCities, who is also acting as OVGuide’s CEO.

OVGuide says it uses a combination of video search and editorial to index video sites and their offerings. Personally I find the site a bit cluttered and clunky. (I mean really — a full-page ad on a search engine? And opening up a new window with its own ad before sending you to another site?)

One aspect that some visitors surely find useful is that the site links to less-than-legal streams of movies and TV episodes. Of course, search engines are most likely legally allowed to send visitors to infringing content, but many sites avoid doing so to maintain relations with the entertainment industry. OVGuide reported more than 12 million unique visitors in January (though comScore’s measure is 5 million).

Also today, recommendation engine The Filter said it had raised an undisclosed amount of additional funding from Peter Gabriel and other angel investors. Updated 2/19: The amount was $1.2 million.

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