VideoSurf’s New Release Jun 10, 20097:59 PDT

VideoSurf’s latest release is out and we’ve got some exciting new developments to share with you.  In addition to the updated look and feel, we made some big improvements to key areas including search relevancy (spam detection, video deduplication), people spotlighting, and our homepage.  This new release is all about helping you find what you’re looking for, faster.  Whether that’s a search result, a celebrity, or a cool video to watch, we’re working harder to make sure you spend less time searching and more time being entertained.

Quickly search for videos in Firefox with VideoSurf & Ubiquity Apr 1, 200912:57 PDT

Most of you probably haven’t heard about Ubiquity yet, but it’s a new project from Mozilla Labs that looks to make Mozilla Firefox much more useful.  Still in a testing stage, Ubiquity is already a great tool and we took it upon ourselves to make it even better. In their own words:

You’re used to telling Firefox where you want to go by typing Web addresses into the URL bar. With Ubiquity installed, you’ll be able to tell Firefox what you want it to do by typing commands into a new Ubiquity input box.

Our new command is built into Ubiquity and will run a VideoSurf search, showing you videos from all over the Web instantly. Our unique visual summary makes it easy for you to see at-a-glance which videos you want to watch. We’ll also let you jump to a particular moment in that video, and show you which people appear frequently in your search results and let you find more videos about those people.

Here are a couple of screenshots of it in action. Once installed, all you have to do is bring up the Ubiquity command window and type “videos [any query]“.

Installing Ubiquity is as easy as installing any other Firefox extension. You can find it here:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Ubiquity. (Direct link to xpi file)

Once you’ve done that, you can summon Ubiquity by tapping option-space on the Mac, or control-space if you’re on Windows. On Linux, try alt-space. Then type “videos [your query]“.

That’s it. Try it out!

We’d really love to hear feedback and ideas, so please email us at feedback@videosurf.com. Thanks!

Seven People Lil Wayne Should Ask to Prom Feb 8, 20097:57 PST

by Kelly Hargrave

Lil Wayne hip hopped his way to the Grammy’s last weekend, most likely sporting his usual dreads, tattoos, and a red solo cup that probably magically fills itself back up when there is only a drop left. Yeah we should be praising him for conquering the world of music in 2008, but maybe he should have waited until after the Grammy’s to leak his debut rock song, “Prom Queen”. Basically, he sounds like a horny robot who’s been hit over the head by a guitar, and sadly words in slow motion from Lil Wayne just aren’t as sexy. If Lil Wayne could do this song all over again, how could he make it better and worthy of what he has already accomplished? Maybe he’d need a mentor–a Mr. Miyagi if you will–to teach him the “wax on” and “wax off” of proms and queens. So to benefit his rock stardom, here are seven people Lil Wayne should ask to prom.

Weezy and his prom date prepare to “wax off”.

Troy Bolton from High School Musical 3

It’s hard enough for Lil Wayne, let alone anyone, to come out with a song about prom after this blockbuster hit. But Zac Efron knows how to work an angle with the ladies. Let’s not go too far and say that Lil Wayne has to turn his song into a Broadway number, but a little more emotion from Weezy Baby could help, unless he truly is trying to appeal to robots, or people who recognize just as much
emotion as Joan Rivers’ face.

Microsoft Songsmith Helps You Butcher Good Music Jan 26, 20093:25 PST

In case you are not familiar with Microsoft Songsmith, the innovative folks over there came up with an ingenious piece of software. It automatically harmonizes the background music with your singing. When I say “harmonize”, I mean it improves the sound of music the way toothpaste improves the taste of orange juice.

People all over the internets have been capitalizing on Songsmith’s musical functions by showcasing its best work–from Radiohead to Metallica. This is the perfect gift for deaf people who want to entertain their neighbors, or any karaoke freaks who aren’t bad enough to destroy a song by themselves.

I eagerly await the Songsmith renditions of Loving You, Never Gonna Give You Up (Not a Rick Roll, I swear!), and I Wanna Sex You Up. Have a taste of Billy Idol’s White Wedding:

And get down with a little Marvin Gaye:

More (including a horrendous remix of Biggie) via Geek Pad Show and Best Week Ever.

New Feature! Discover by Character Dec 18, 200811:23 PST

As part of our never-ending quest to help make cool videos easier for you to find, VideoSurf is very excited to announce our new Discover Videos by Character feature. We’ve taken our computer vision technology, which can see inside videos, and put it to work in identifying and measuring which personalities are most visible, and therefore popular, on the Web. Since our computers can recognize and follow Britney Spears every time she appears on screen, we can determine, based on the frequency and duration of her appearances, how popular she is. Based on what we know about every character’s screen time, we keep a running rank of who’s most popular by category and you can see those characters listed from left to right in order of importance. When you click on any of the faces you’ll find all the videos and moments in which that character appeared.

It’s a new kind of relevancy for video that ranks importance based on the content of the video, rather than just what the text associated with it says is important. Try it out and let us know what you think!