Video search 'needs to develop'

14th March 2008

Methods of searching for video on the internet must be advanced, the leading industry presence has claimed.

Phillip Inghelbrecht, head of strategic partner development at YouTube, told delegates at McGraw Hill's Media Summit that the lack of video search is a challenge for the company.

Silicon Alley Insider heard the executive state that user habits are shifting from accessing YouTube to browse and sample the unexpected to a much more driven approach, where consumers look for specific items on the video-streaming site.

"This is a challenge for us because there is simply no good video search out there today," Mr Inghelbrecht said.

He added that advertising would be the key to solving the problem of video search, noting that copyright owners are still being persuaded to upload their content onto the Google-owned web space.

Barak Bar-Cohen, president and chief operations officer with Narrowstep, has this week predicted that "exponential" growth in the web TV market in the UK.