blinkx launches search for TV

Fire up some other browser than Opera and check it out, blinkx has launched a search engine for television programming. The new tool is called blinkx TV and it's available, strangely enough, at http://www.blinkx.tv .

The beta tool recommends that you be using broadband and requires that you use at least three search words (I tried searching for two words and it worked fine, so maybe it's less of a rule and more of a guideline.)

I searched for Yahoo Google Search. I got ten results, sorted by relevance. (There's also an option at the top of the page to list by date instead.) Oddly for a tool called blinkx TV the first result was for NPR radio. The sources for the search are on the left, with checkboxes to toggle their inclusion in the search.

Search results include a source, date and time, excerpt, and URL. Click on the source and a popup window will appear and the video will start playing.

The site also has a component called Smart Folders, though it requires that you download and install some software. (If you want me to download and install some software, how about you give me a pointer to your privacy policy and about eight million assurances that I'm not downloading something Really Bad?) The Smart Folders will allow you to download content and play if offline later. The Smart Folders will also monitor blinkx TV for new content matching your search and update your files regularly.

Posted to Entertainment-Television | TrackBack