SAN FRANCISCO -- Streaming video site Justin.tv is converting porn queries into dollars, redirecting sexually oriented Web searches to the adult video chat site IMLive.com.
Justin.tv is known for family-friendly videos. The site was was launched in 2006 by young entrepreneur Justin Kan, who grabbed headlines for attempting a 24-hour online "life-cast" of his daily existence.
The new redirection for porn searches is just a case of a website seeking new ways to bring in revenue, according to CEO Michael Seibel.
"Justin.tv uses a variety of common tools to effectively reduce the amount of inappropriate content on the site, including community-based reporting, community administration, chat moderation and redirecting sex-related search queries,"Seibel wrote in an e-mail to TechCrunch.
If a visitor types the words "porn" or "sex" into Justin.tv's search engine, the site responds with a message: "We noticed you were searching for content we don't allow on Justin.tv. Please be patient while we send you to a site where you can find what you're looking for."
Unless a visitor opts out of a five-second countdown, they're taken to IMLive. And Justin.tv receives a referral fee in the bargain... especially if the visitor signs up for the video-chat service.
"Let's be clear," Seibel said. "This isn't the magical solution for monetizing Web 2.0, [but] these tools exclusively help us to improve the community experience on the site."
