America Online has acquired Seattle-based audio/video search engine Singingfish, builders of what's considered the Internet's largest streaming media content index, for an undisclosed sum, CBS Marketwatch reported November 19.
AOL senior vice president Jim Riesenbach said streaming media's volume on the Web grows by factors of ten every six months and offering easy access to the material, on the Net and within AOL's subscription service, is a key reason for broadband customers to sign up for AOL.
Singingfish told Marketwatch its database includes a catalog of at least ten million streams, MP3s, and downloads, adding between 200,000 and 300,000 files per month, generating revenue through licensing its search engine to other Websites and by fees content producers pay to get their material highlighted.
The AOL/Singingfish deal means AOL members can get to Singingfish services by an audio and video tab at AOL Search, Marketwatch said. "Tabs represent specialized search resources," SearchEngineWatch.com editor Danny Sullivan told Marketwatch, "and oftentimes people would be better off using them than trying to search the Web. Want news content? Use a news search engine. Want multimedia? Use a multimedia search engine."
In other AOL developments, the Internet giant has teamed with Sun Microsystems to sell under-$300 desktop personal computers bundled with Sun's StarOffice, a competitor to Microsoft Office. Marketwatch said the machines are produced by Systemax for sale to British consumers agreeing to commit to yearlong AOL subscriptions at $23.90 a month. The package also includes a monitor and a Lexmark printer, and Sun is said to be looking into similar partnerships combining product and merchandise to promote StarOffice.
