Robert Scoble on VideoSurf: "Finally a website that doesn't suck!"

Day 3 of TechCrunch50 had a slow start due to, apparently, heavy partying at the Semantec party last night. Some 15 minutes after the official start time, it seemed that the space was sufficiently filled with red-eyed, messy haired audience, and we are on track with the first presentation in the Rich Media category--VideoSurf.

VideoSurf is a sophisticated data tagging application that lets users cull out specific frames in videos and share with others. The technology uses face recognition and deep data analysis to provide users with multiple ways to find and share video frames.

While Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook supports the choice of target market given its immense growth potential, to Bradley Horowitz' point--it is not clear whether consumer video sharing is the best beachhead for this application--there might be a smaller, more focused, more differentiated, less saturated market (security, was one suggestion.)

Regardless, VideoSurve should be noted as having a flexible, intuitive interface that simplifies what could have been a highly complex intefrace. As Scoble put it, "finally a website that doesn't suck!"

Comments

[D Sharma]

Hi Rlichtenberg,

Thank you for providing insightful tips about VideoSurf. Actually at a concept level the way I see it 'face recognition' is an emerging trend.

Since you're talking about the concept I thought I should share with you the photo sharing capabilities of family oriented social networking site - MyHertiage. We're addressing the needs of global audience and are available in multiple languages. Please take a look at it and let us know thoughts.

[Ravit Lichtenberg]

Hi D Sharma-

Thank you for your comment. VideoSurf's differentiation is that it takes visual search to the next level by providing users with options to find video frames through entry of a phrase from the video (or TV episode), an actor's name, or the traditional face/object recognition. The demo showed the process to finding a specific phrase from the TV show Entourage. You can see more via the recorded presentation here:
http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/conference/presenter.php?presenter=78