Bambi Francisco and Alex Barnett share a few comments about Truveo, a new video search engine. Bambi’s post includes a video of Truveo founder Tim Tuttle giving his “elevator pitch” to VCs, while Alex reports that a Truveo search using his name succeeded in finding the only two videos he’s created.
A page on the Truveo web site sheds some light on how it approaches the challenges of video search:
[T]wo years ago, we had an insight that led us to conceive a dramatically different technique for web crawling. The insight was simple: web video that remains invisible to standard crawlers can be easily identified by a casual web surfer. We felt that if we could build a crawler that could identify the visual characteristics of a typical web application in the same way that a person could, then it would be possible to find and index all of the web video that other crawlers miss. We call this new approach “visual crawling”.
Two years later, we have moved our visual crawling technology out of the lab and begun to crawl the web for video. Even though we are just getting started, we have already indexed an extensive collection of web video that you will not find in any other search engine. Of course, as we continue to crawl the web, our search engine gets better every day…
For video to be searchable, it is also necessary to collect meaningful text metadata to associate with each video file. Of course, we rely on standard techniques, such as mining closed-caption transcripts and importing RSS feeds. The vast majority of video on the web, however, does not have any closed-caption or RSS metadata available. Fortunately, our visual crawlers come to the rescue. Whenever our visual crawlers find a new video on the web, they can also “visually” examine the context of the surrounding web application. In most cases, this examination reveals a bounty of rich and detailed metadata related to every video.Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 11:28 PM | Print | Comments (0)
At the U.N. Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, the U.S. is fighting hard to keep control over Internet governance via Icann and has proposed, instead, a forum to be held next year. In a move straight out of a political handbook, the U.S. government said it won’t give up control over Internet naming to another country or body, but agreed to create a forum on a wide range of Internet issues, slated to be held in Greece next year.
The move to create the forum is akin to Congress or regulatory agency agreeing to conduct a study on a controversial matter in order to buy time and avoid taking potentially unpleasant action. This bit of political jujitsu was actually a smart move by the U.S., and one that has apparently paid off. According to this Wall Street Journal piece, critics of U.S. control over Internet governance were somewhat appeased by the creation of the forum. But still, no one thinks this issue will go away.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:05 PM | Print
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled today that the FCC’s e911 rules can proceed, shooting down the request for a stay of the regulations by VoIP providers, such as Nuvio.
While it’s not clear from press reports what the court said, the decision to not stay the FCC’s rules appears to have been based on procedural issues and not the merits of the appeal.
The Commission’s original e911 order required VoIP providers to meet certain requirements by November 28, or else cut off customers where the requirements are not met. Last week the FCC modified the cut-off requirement to eliminate any customer termination; instead the Commission said that VoIP providers can’t market services in areas where the requirements are still not fulfilled.
VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver today (prior to the Appeals Court decision) said that
On November 28, two weeks from now, VoIP providers will not be allowed to market VoIP services where there is not an E-911 solution available in that vicinity. As I have mentioned, this is the first time, to my knowledge, that the FCC has determined that consumers in vast swaths of America should not be allowed to avail themselves of a service or technology with a willing vendor or supplierPosted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:51 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The Hollywood Reporter has an interview with Rupert Murdoch in this week’s issue. Whatever you think of his politics, it’s difficult to not admire the fact that despite decades in the media business, he’s still passionate about what he does.
Murdoch is not just passionate about the communications industries. At 74 he’s more in touch with the latest technology and social trends driving the development of cutting-edge media than many executives half his age and he’s a major catalyst in the rise of Web 2.0 services.
His seemingly genuine enthusiasm for the Internet is high (as it should be given News Corp’s recent Internet buying spree), a contrast to some other media chieftains who really don’t understand the fundamental changes taking place.
But the Internet has been the most fundamental change during my lifetime and for hundreds of years. Someone the other day said, “It’s the biggest thing since Gutenberg,” and then someone else said, “No, it’s the biggest thing since the invention of writing.” With the technology that goes with it, the fact is that everybody now is empowered: Anyone can buy what they want, shop where they want, talk to anybody in the world that they want (and) state their own opinions. There’s no mystery to a blog: Put up your thoughts (and) find friends. And the younger people are, the more time they’re spending on it — it’s extraordinary.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:17 PM | Print | Comments (0)
John Stankey, EVP and CTO at SBC, put the kibosh on WiMax this morning at UBS’s Global Communications Conference, saying that it might work in niche situations, but on the whole the technology won’t replace traditional transmission networks. “In my personal opinion there’s an overexuberance for the technology by some,” Stankey said. “We don’t see a hands-down no-brainer winner.”
The capital cost structure and the cash needed for spectrum make WiMax an iffy economic proposition, although it can be useful in certain areas, particularly rural markets, as “fill-in,” he said. “I don’t think we will be able to use it as a wireline replacement.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:46 AM | Print | Comments (0)SBC’s EVP and CTO John Stankey was on the defensive this morning at UBS’s Global Communications Conference over the pace and prospects of Project Lightspeed. Even though Stankey praised the video-over-VDSL IPTV initiative in his initial remarks, he fielded pointed questions over the delayed project, with particular criticism from the investor attendees over problems SBC has been having with Microsoft’s software.
“IPTV works and it works well,” Stankey said, noting that the company just finished its field trial with 40 homes in San Antonio, where SBC achieved 20 to 25 Mbps, enough, he claims, for high quality video and ultimately voice and data services. But, SBC is waiting on a complete set of Microsoft software, doesn’t have its set-top boxes in production yet and just last week implemented a new OSS system.
During Q and A, Stankey took heat for his upbeat remarks on Project Lightspeed given the developmental fluidity. He said that Microsoft’s next iteration of software will add features to the already installed base, which is a good thing.
In terms of the boxes, “what we want is a cheaper box that has a far better price point than our competitors have because it’s manufactured with one chip. They’re not vaporware, they’re in the lab.” Regarding the OSS, SBC is testing it now because it doesn’t want to go to market with an inferior product.
“These are normal things you would have to do to scale a launch to a new business,” Stankey said.
Microsoft came in for particular skepticism. One questioner asked Stankey why SBC doesn’t just dump Microsoft, with its apparent multiple revisions designed to solve problems, in favor of other IPTV software vendors such as Myrio. Stankey said that SBC’s relationship with Microsoft, and systems integrator Alcatel, “is beyond just a technical position,” with the companies also working to develop applications and services for consumers.
“I’m pleased with the pace we’ve made and how well things have gone,” he said. “Two, three years down the road if there is something else better out there, might we look at other technology? Sure.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:26 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Courtesy of Lost Remote, this piece by Steve Outing at Poynter Online takes a look at whether citizen journalists should be paid. Outing contends that the best of citizen journalism should be compensated and the obvious starting point is photographs — there’s a track record in the media of buying amateur pictures.
Should news organizations assume that public generosity will continue to provide them with important citizen/eyewitness news coverage? I’d say that would be naive. The current period of undervalued (free) citizen content is likely to come to a close when it comes to the top-quality level of that content.Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:59 AM | Print | Comments (0)
The fight over U.S. control of Internet governance could come to a head this week as the U.N. hosts its summit on the information age in Tunis. The long-simmering issue centers on who controls domain names, with European Union members and other nations asking the U.S. to relinquish control over naming — Icann, which governs names, is under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
According to this New York Times article, the U.S. is so far refusing to give up control, even though the agreement that lets Icann operate under the Commerce Department expires in September. While the U.S. tends to look intransigent in wanting to hold control over Internet governance, the government fears that turning over domain naming to international bodies such as the ITU (a proposal no longer on the table according to the Times piece) could politicize and balkanize the Internet.
But the U.S. may have to compromise, somehow, given the apparent hypocrisy of our position, namely that we are somehow objective where other nations or entities can’t be.
But Mr. Mueller [Milton Mueller, a partner in the Internet Project], a participant in the meeting and a longtime follower of developments at Icann, said the Americans had handled their position poorly in the face of global opposition since then. “Americans are so parochial when it comes to these things,” he said. “They have no idea how it sounds to 200 other countries when they say, ‘The Internet really is nongovernmental - except for us.’ Why were they so surprised? In the U.S., that contradiction becomes invisible to you.”Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:59 AM | Print | Comments (0)
Sony can’t get it right — following its rootkit fiasco, the entertainment and technology giant released an “uninstaller” that actually causes more harm, according to computer scientist Ed Felten.
Alex Halderman and I have confirmed that Sony’s Web-based XCP uninstallation utility exposes users to serious security risk. Under at least some circumstances, running Sony’s Web-based uninstaller opens a huge security hole on your computer. We have a working demonstration exploit.
Felten and colleague Halderman are asking for technically sophisticated volunteers to help them in their investigations of this latest PR nightmare for Sony.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:40 AM | Print | Comments (0)
The municipal broadband market shows no signs of slowing down, much to the dismay of incumbent cable and phone companies. The latest sign that city-supplied Wi-Fi is here to stay: Cisco has thrown its hat into the ring.
According to this CNET piece, the mighty networking giant is entering a market that has to date been dominated by small suppliers. Cisco will announce today a new product line called the Aironet 1500 series, which will use mesh technology to communicate with each other and determine the best path for traffic.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:34 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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