Google may be looking to gobble up British video search site Blinkx .
Reuters reports Google, along with NewsCorp and Yahoo, could all be considering a purchase. The company’s shares have been having a strong day with word of the news.
Blinkx has seen quite a bit of success since its launch four years ago. It sets itself apart by using a speech recognition utility to analyze the audio of uploaded content, thus letting users conduct more powerful searches. It claims to be the “world’s largest and most advanced video search engine” and says it sends out more content than any of its competitors.
Microsoft signed an agreement with Blinkx in 2006 to use its video searching technology. Blinkx has had deals with dozens of other companies, including NBC, MTV, and even YouTube.
Interestingly enough, the Dow Jones speculated a year ago that Blinkx hoped to “become the Google Inc. of the Internet video-search engine market.” It may just end up getting its wish, quite literally.