AOL Video Search is online and it shows some real potential as a search engine, as Gary Price noted on SearchEngineWatch.com. The video playback aspects may be another matter entirely. Results include multimedia streams and files from AOL and the web with featured video from AOL and its partners getting top billing. AOL Network members get personalized recommendations. The results are powered by AOL’s Singingfish and fed by its multimedia spider. CNET News.com: AOL Video can search and playback more than 15,000 licensed and originally produced clips from across Time Warner as well as various media partners.
I started off with a search for video of Kenny Rogers meltdown on the ballfield Wednesday night and as soon as I typed the name was offered the chance to choose between the singer and the baseball player. I opted for a general search and quickly was offered four options for the video I wanted; only one was accessible to non-AOL subscribers. The featured videos were all the baseball player; the web picks started with the performer.
As for playing the video, aye, there’s the rub. The video doesn’t play yet in versions of Firefox after 1.0 but is supposed to at least play in that, a major advance over the current AOL video player. When I tried to watch the one video for non-subscribers in IE, the Real media player couldn’t connect on multiple tries. Logging in didn’t help; each video effort failed. This is an integral part of AOL’s yet-to-launch Video Hub and the video play has to be effortless for users.
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