Singingfish: Difference between revisions

Singingfish
Company type	Subsidiary of AOL
Industry	Internet Search
Founded	1999, acquired by Thomson SA in 2000, by AOL in 2003
Defunct	Feb 2007
Fate	Acquired
Headquarters	Seattle, WA
Number of employees	over 50
Website	www.singingfish.com

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Singingfish was an audio/video search engine that powered audio video search for Windows Media Player,^[1]^[2] WindowsMedia.com, RealOne/RealPlayer,^[2] Real Guide,^[3] AOL Search, Dogpile, Metacrawler^[4] and Singingfish.com, among others. Launched in 2000, it was one of the earliest and longest lived search engines dedicated to multimedia content. Acquired in 2003 by AOL,^[5] it was slowly folded into the AOL search offerings and all web hits from RMC TV to Singingfish were being redirected to AOL Video and as of February 2007 Singingfish had ceased to exist as a separate service.

Singingfish powered audio search continues to live on for the time being at AOL Search and other AOL properties. However, little if any development has been done since August 2006. Singingfish powered video search is no longer publicly available and is now being re-directed to AOL Video Search.

Overview

Singingfish employed its own web crawler, Asterias,^[6] designed specifically to ferret out audio and video links across the web. In 2003 and 2004, Asterias discovered an average of about 50,000 new pieces of multimedia content a day. A proprietary system was used to process each of the discovered links, extracting metadata and then enhancing it prior to indexing as much multimedia content on the web has little or poor metadata. Many of the multimedia URLs used as seeds for Singingfish's crawlers and annotation engines came from cache logs from the NSF-funded National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) IRCache Web Caching project.^[7]

History

Singingfish was founded in mid-1999 by John DeRosa, Eric Rehm, Ken Berkun, and Mike Behlke.

By January 2000, it had grown to 17 employees. The group photo on the left was taken in Singingfish's first office on Seattle's Capitol Hill on January 24, 2000. From left to right: Robin Alexander, Scott Lee, Chris Wilkes, Eric Rehm, Shannon MacRae, Mike Behlke, Mark Lipsky, Linden Rhoads (a non-employee adviser), John Madsen, Charles Porter, Vas Sudanagunta, Paul Shannon, Austin Dahl, Chris Abajian and John DeRosa. Not pictured: Ken Berkun and Monte Hayward.

A public alpha version of the search service was unveiled at Streaming Media East in New York City in June 2000.^[8]

By the Fall of 2000, Singingfish had grown to over 50 employees. In November 2000, it was acquired by the French company Thomson multimedia^[9] (now Thomson SA). Singingfish announced its first customer, Zurich-based Internet AG,^[10] in December 2000. Singingfish Search first appeared on Internet AG's "Swiss Search" and Infospace's Dogpile and Metacrawler sites late in the summer of 2001.

By this time Singingfish was clearly the dominant multimedia search engine. No competitor indexed as much of the audio and video content available on the web or provided more relevant query results. In the fall of 2001, RealNetworks signed a deal with Singingfish for the latter to provide audio and video search for RealOne Player. In January 2003, Microsoft signed a similar deal,^[11] in this case to provide audio and video search for Windows Media Player and WindowsMedia.com.

Singingfish downsized dramatically under Thomson multimedia (Summer 2001) and then slowly continued to shrink in size through its acquisition by AOL in October 2003. However, Thomson multimedia continued to support research and development into multimedia metadata standards such as MPEG-7^[12]^[13] that were incorporated into Singingfish technology.^[14]

Soon after acquiring Singingfish, AOL integrated its audio/video search service into AOL Search, adding yet another big-name to the stable of search products powered by Singingfish. As of August 2006, Singingfish continued to power multimedia search for both Microsoft and Real, and was being fully integrated into the AOL search and directed media business unit.

The last members of the Singingfish staff were laid off in December 2006.^[15] Since February 7, 2007 all web hits to Singingfish have been redirected to AOL Video.

Features

Supported Formats

Partner feeds

The content providers below added their audio and video content to Singingfish's search index using regular feeds. In addition to providing high quality meta data to be indexed, these direct feeds also enabled Singingfish to produce highly current results for news related queries.

References

^ EcontentMag.com: Singingfish to Power Audio and Video Search in the Windows Media Player
^ ^a ^b Multimedia Search: Singingfish - ClickZ
^ For queries on Real Guide, Singingfish search results appeared in the section "Audio & Video on the Web". The Singingfish logo was only displayed on the second and later result pages.
^ For queries on Dogpile and Metacrawler, results from Singingfish were annotated next to the relevant result(s).
^ AOL Buys Singingfish, Rolls Out More Search Changes - Search Engine Watch Archived 2008-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
^ Web Robot Articles by Janet Systems Archived 2006-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
^ IRCache: Frequently Asked Questions
^ Seattle Startup Catches Attention @ Streaming Media East
^ Streamingmedia.com: Thomson Multimedia Swallows Singingfish.com
^ Singingfish Signs Inside Internet AG as First European Customer
^ Singingfish Grows As Multimedia Search Provider – Search Engine Watch Archived 2006-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
^ Representing internet streaming media metadata using MPEG-7 multimedia description schemes
^ MPEG Standards -> Metadata captures multimedia diversity
^ MPEG-7 White Paper Archived 2007-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Read the Scoop about AOL: Singingfish at TrenchMice". Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-02-10.

[1] EcontentMag.com: Singingfish to Power Audio and Video Search in the Windows Media Player

[clickz-2] Multimedia Search: Singingfish - ClickZ

[Perry-3] For queries on Real Guide, Singingfish search results appeared in the section "Audio & Video on the Web". The Singingfish logo was only displayed on the second and later result pages.

[Zonk-4] For queries on Dogpile and Metacrawler, results from Singingfish were annotated next to the relevant result(s).

[aol-5] AOL Buys Singingfish, Rolls Out More Search Changes - Search Engine Watch Archived 2008-04-10 at the Wayback Machine

[6] Web Robot Articles by Janet Systems Archived 2006-11-03 at the Wayback Machine

[ircache-7] IRCache: Frequently Asked Questions

[8] Seattle Startup Catches Attention @ Streaming Media East

[Thomson-9] Streamingmedia.com: Thomson Multimedia Swallows Singingfish.com

[10] Singingfish Signs Inside Internet AG as First European Customer

[11] Singingfish Grows As Multimedia Search Provider – Search Engine Watch Archived 2006-10-21 at the Wayback Machine

[ACM2001-12] Representing internet streaming media metadata using MPEG-7 multimedia description schemes

[eetimes-13] MPEG Standards -> Metadata captures multimedia diversity

[14] MPEG-7 White Paper Archived 2007-10-25 at the Wayback Machine

[15] "Read the Scoop about AOL: Singingfish at TrenchMice". Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-02-10.

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@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
   logo   = [[Image:SingingfishLogo.png|center|173px]]|
   type   = [[Subsidiary]] of [[AOL]] |
-  company_slogan = It's a strange world. Fish it.|
   foundation     = 1999, acquired by [[Thomson SA]] in 2000, by [[AOL]] in 2003|
   location       = [[Seattle, WA]]|
@@ Line 13: / Line 12: @@
   homepage       = [http://singingfish.com www.singingfish.com]
 }}
-'''Singingfish''' was an audio/video [[Web search engine|search engine]] that powered audio video search for [[Windows Media Player]],<ref>[http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=3923 EcontentMag.com: Singingfish to Power Audio and Video Search in the Windows Media Player<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name=clickz/> WindowsMedia.com, [[RealOne]]/[[RealPlayer]],<ref name=clickz>[http://www.clickz.com/2175491 Multimedia Search: Singingfish - ClickZ<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Real Guide,<ref name=Perry>For queries on Real Guide, Singingfish search results appeared in the section "Audio & Video on the Web". The Singingfish logo was only displayed on the second and later result pages.</ref> [[AOL]] Search, [[Dogpile]], [[Metacrawler]]<ref name=Zonk>For queries on Dogpile and Metacrawler, results from Singingfish were annotated next to the relevant result(s).</ref> and Singingfish.com, among others.  Launched in 2000, it was one of the earliest and longest lived search engines dedicated to multimedia content. Acquired in 2003 by [[AOL]],<ref name=aol>[http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3110961 AOL Buys Singingfish, Rolls Out More Search Changes - Search Engine Watch<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> it was slowly folded into the AOL search offerings and all web hits from RMC TV to Singingfish were being redirected to AOL Video and as of February 2007 Singingfish had ceased to exist as a separate service.
+'''Singingfish''' was an audio/video [[Web search engine|search engine]] that powered audio video search for [[Windows Media Player]],<ref>[http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=3923 EcontentMag.com: Singingfish to Power Audio and Video Search in the Windows Media Player<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name=clickz/> WindowsMedia.com, [[RealOne]]/[[RealPlayer]],<ref name=clickz>[http://www.clickz.com/2175491 Multimedia Search: Singingfish - ClickZ<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Real Guide,<ref name=Perry>For queries on Real Guide, Singingfish search results appeared in the section "Audio & Video on the Web". The Singingfish logo was only displayed on the second and later result pages.</ref> [[AOL]] Search, [[Dogpile]], [[Metacrawler]]<ref name=Zonk>For queries on Dogpile and Metacrawler, results from Singingfish were annotated next to the relevant result(s).</ref> and Singingfish.com, among others.  Launched in 2000, it was one of the earliest and longest lived search engines dedicated to multimedia content. Acquired in 2003 by [[AOL]],<ref name=aol>[http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3110961 AOL Buys Singingfish, Rolls Out More Search Changes - Search Engine Watch<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410191509/http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3110961 |date=2008-04-10 }}</ref> it was slowly folded into the AOL search offerings and all web hits from RMC TV to Singingfish were being redirected to AOL Video and as of February 2007 Singingfish had ceased to exist as a separate service.
 Singingfish powered audio search continues to live on for the time being at [http://search.aol.com/aol/webhome AOL Search] and other AOL properties.  However, little if any development has been done since August 2006.  Singingfish powered video search is no longer publicly available and is now being re-directed to AOL Video Search.
 == Overview ==
-Singingfish employed its own [[web crawler]], Asterias,<ref>[http://www.janetsystems.co.uk/Articles/WebRobots/tabid/82/itemid/41/Default.aspx Web Robot Articles by Janet Systems<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> designed specifically to ferret out audio and video links across the web. In 2003 and 2004, Asterias discovered an average of about 50,000 new pieces of multimedia content a day. A proprietary system was used to process each of the discovered links, extracting [[metadata]] and then enhancing it prior to indexing as much multimedia content on the web has little or poor metadata.  Many of the multimedia URLs used as seeds for Singingfish's crawlers and annotation engines came from cache logs from the NSF-funded National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) IRCache Web Caching project.<ref name=ircache>[http://www.ircache.net/FAQ/ IRCache: Frequently Asked Questions<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
+Singingfish employed its own [[web crawler]], Asterias,<ref>[http://www.janetsystems.co.uk/Articles/WebRobots/tabid/82/itemid/41/Default.aspx Web Robot Articles by Janet Systems<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061103154303/http://www.janetsystems.co.uk/Articles/WebRobots/tabid/82/itemid/41/Default.aspx |date=2006-11-03 }}</ref> designed specifically to ferret out audio and video links across the web. In 2003 and 2004, Asterias discovered an average of about 50,000 new pieces of multimedia content a day. A proprietary system was used to process each of the discovered links, extracting [[metadata]] and then enhancing it prior to indexing as much multimedia content on the web has little or poor metadata.  Many of the multimedia URLs used as seeds for Singingfish's crawlers and annotation engines came from cache logs from the NSF-funded National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) IRCache Web Caching project.<ref name=ircache>[http://www.ircache.net/FAQ/ IRCache: Frequently Asked Questions<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
 == History ==
@@ Line 33: / Line 32: @@
 <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Singingfish group photo - Queen Anne Big Room.jpg|thumb|right|288px|Summer 2000 group photo]] -->
-By this time Singingfish was clearly the dominant multimedia search engine. No competitor indexed as much of the audio and video content available on the web or provided more relevant query results. In the fall of 2001, [[RealNetworks]] signed a deal with Singingfish for the latter to provide audio and video search for [[RealOne]] Player. In January 2003, [[Microsoft]] signed a similar deal,<ref>[http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2165251 Singingfish Grows As Multimedia Search Provider - Search Engine Watch<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> in this case to provide audio and video search for [[Windows Media Player]] and [[WindowsMedia.com]].
+By this time Singingfish was clearly the dominant multimedia search engine. No competitor indexed as much of the audio and video content available on the web or provided more relevant query results. In the fall of 2001, [[RealNetworks]] signed a deal with Singingfish for the latter to provide audio and video search for [[RealOne]] Player. In January 2003, [[Microsoft]] signed a similar deal,<ref>[http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2165251 Singingfish Grows As Multimedia Search Provider – Search Engine Watch<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021141410/http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2165251 |date=2006-10-21 }}</ref> in this case to provide audio and video search for [[Windows Media Player]] and [[WindowsMedia.com]].
-Singingfish downsized dramatically under Thomson multimedia (Summer 2001) and then slowly continued to shrink in size through its acquisition by [[AOL]] in October 2003.  However, Thomson multimedia continued to support research and development into multimedia metadata standards such as [[MPEG-7]]<ref name=ACM2001>[http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=357744.357887 Representing internet streaming media metadata using MPEG-7 multimedia description schemes<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name=eetimes>[http://www.us.design-reuse.com/articles/article2312.html MPEG Standards -> Metadata captures multimedia diversity<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> that were incorporated into Singingfish technology.<ref>[http://www.medialab.sonera.fi/workspace/MPEG7WhitePaper.pdf MPEG-7 White Paper<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
+Singingfish downsized dramatically under Thomson multimedia (Summer 2001) and then slowly continued to shrink in size through its acquisition by [[AOL]] in October 2003.  However, Thomson multimedia continued to support research and development into multimedia metadata standards such as [[MPEG-7]]<ref name=ACM2001>[http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=357744.357887 Representing internet streaming media metadata using MPEG-7 multimedia description schemes<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref name=eetimes>[http://www.us.design-reuse.com/articles/article2312.html MPEG Standards -> Metadata captures multimedia diversity<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> that were incorporated into Singingfish technology.<ref>[http://www.medialab.sonera.fi/workspace/MPEG7WhitePaper.pdf MPEG-7 White Paper<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025113621/http://www.medialab.sonera.fi/workspace/MPEG7WhitePaper.pdf |date=2007-10-25 }}</ref>
 Soon after acquiring Singingfish, AOL integrated its audio/video search service into AOL Search, adding yet another big-name to the stable of search products powered by Singingfish. As of August 2006, Singingfish continued to power multimedia search for both Microsoft and Real, and was being fully integrated into the AOL search and directed media business unit.
-The last members of the Singingfish staff were laid off in December 2006.<ref>http://www.trenchmice.com/scoop/2/</ref> Since February 7, 2007 all web hits to Singingfish have been redirected to AOL Video.
+The last members of the Singingfish staff were laid off in December 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trenchmice.com/scoop/2/ |title=Read the Scoop about AOL: Singingfish at TrenchMice |access-date=2007-02-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208042830/http://www.trenchmice.com/scoop/2/ |archive-date=2007-02-08 }}</ref> Since February 7, 2007 all web hits to Singingfish have been redirected to AOL Video.
 ==Features==
@@ Line 57: / Line 56: @@
 *[[Comedy Central]]
 *[[MTV]]
-*[[Nickelodeon (TV channel)|Nickelodeon]]
+*[[Nickelodeon]]
 *[[TV Land]]
 *[[Reuters]]
@@ Line 75: / Line 74: @@
 *[[AOL]]
+==References==
-==Notes and references==
 <References/>
 {{AOL Inc.}}
-[[Category:Internet search engines]]
+[[Category:Defunct internet search engines]]
-[[Category:Time Warner subsidiaries]]
+[[Category:American music websites]]
-[[Category:Companies established in 1999]]
+[[Category:American companies established in 1999]]
-[[Category:2007 disestablishments]]
+[[Category:Internet properties established in 1999]]
-[[Category:Music websites]]
+[[Category:Technology companies established in 1999]]
-[[Category:Defunct websites]]
+[[Category:Technology companies disestablished in 2007]]
+[[Category:AOL]]

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