Blinkx

Known for its online video search engine, Blinkx is now trying to wend its way into the mobile market.

The video search provider announced Wednesday a beta of a new Web site designed to let people find and play videos through their mobile devices. The new mobile site is geared toward any phone that has a Web browser and can play MP4 files, such as the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre, and Google Nexus One, among several others.

Differing from its standard Web site, Blinkx's new site is optimized to display on a smaller device, the company said. A video … Read more

Video might've killed the radio star, but the Web sure hasn't killed music videos. Less than a week after News Corp.-owned social site MySpace announced its MySpace Music Videos portal, video search engine Blinkx announced the debut Tuesday of "Blinkx Music," a search tool specifically designed to trawl through music videos across the Web.

"There are hundreds of thousands of music videos available on the Web today which makes it nearly impossible to navigate and find what you are looking for," Blinkx founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake explained in a release. "Based … Read more

Over the last 13 years, Chris Shipley has been the primary gatekeeper of the twice-a-year Demo conferences, evaluating more than 20,000 applications from companies wishing to present in front of a roomful of reporters, venture capitalists, and analysts.

Now, with DemoFall 2009 beginning Tuesday morning, Shipley is marking the last of 24 Demos she has overseen as she prepares the formal hand-off of the show to VentureBeat founder Matt Marshall.

For each Demo, Shipley and her team have selected a few dozen companies, giving each a chance to make a name for themselves during a 6-minute presentation in a … Read more

Want to sit back, relax, and watch comedic cat videos? Blinkx, an online video search engine, wants to help you unleash your inner couch potato.

The British company is redesigning its Web site by adding three new buttons: "Entertain Me," "Inform Me," and "Give Me My Own Channel." The idea is to help people get different classes of videos--entertaining videos, news, and videos related what they've sought before--without having to explicitly search for it.

"You don't have to say what you want. We'll just find it for you. We'll … Read more

Blinkx, a British video search compan that already tried to acquire online advertising firm Miva, announced Wednesday that it is placing another bid to acquire the company.

Only this time around, Blinkx's offer is just $0.55 per share for Miva--less than half its original offer of $1.20 per share.

"Blinkx believes the proposal is highly attractive for Miva shareholders, particularly in light of issues in the Miva business and current market conditions," a release from Blinkx reads. "Blinkx's proposal represents a 108 percent premium above the closing price of Miva common stock of $… Read more

Miva announced Monday it secured a $10 million credit line, as the digital advertising and media company seeks to expand its brand and introduce a new ad platform amid a troubled economy.

Miva, which received its credit line from a subsidiary of Bridge Capital Holdings, plans to use the proceeds toward expanding its Alot toolbar and homepage brand, as well as its Miva Media ad platform.

The credit line will give some leeway to the company, which initiated a restructuring in the second quarter and announced a 15 percent cut in its workforce.

Miva also rejected the unwelcome advances of British video search site Blinkx … Read more

Blinkx's BBTV product has been given a Web overhaul as of today. Gone is the need to download a special application and instead BBTV-indexed clips will show up in normal Blinkx search results. The company is also maintaining a directory of each content provider and their various shows so you can scan BBTV-indexed shows in one central location.

The real draw of BBTV over traditional video indexing is that Blinkx has gone over each video and pulled out text transcripts so users can jump to specific parts of the video based on what's being said. Compared to newcomer … Read more

The British video search site Blinkx has offered to acquire Miva, a digital-ad company that sprang out of Web 1.0 search ad firm FindWhat, for a price of $1.20 per share in cash. That's a 54 percent premium over Miva's August 7 closing price of 78 cents.

"A combination of the two companies--fusing Miva's advertising network with Blinkx's ability to leverage its technology portfolio into the online market--presents an exciting and compelling opportunity," a release from Blinkx read. Miva has not yet responded to the offer.

Several months ago, reports surfaced that both Google and News Corp. … Read more

Blinkx, whose technology lets people search for videos hosted elsewhere on the Internet, is making it possible for other Web sites to incorporate its search results and share any resulting revenue.

Through a program called Red Label, the company is opening its application programming interface (API) so other sites can pipe video search queries to Blinkx, retrieve the results, and publish them, said Chief Executive and founder Suranga Chandratillake.

"If you have fewer than 10,000 searches per day, you can have access for free. If you have more than 10,000, we ask you to monetize it and … Read more