Electronics giant Thomson multimedia has just finalized its purchase of Seattle-based Singingfish.com, only days before the search engine’s formal launch at the Streaming Media West conference December 12-14. At the conference, Singingfish.com will announce its first customers and unveil private-label search services developed for some of the Internet’s premiere websites.
Thomson multimedia signed a letter of intent to purchase the company in August and announced that Singingfish technology will play a key role in its new business-to-business segment called Digital Media Solutions (DMS). DMS will provide infrastructure products to entertainment and media industries to enable companies to exploit the opportunities of digital technology.
Singingfish.com uses a combination of a second-generation search architecture and an automated, rule-based classification system to handle the retrieving and indexing of streaming media. In addition, the company is building a collaborative network of content producers that helps ensure its information is accurate and respectful of ownership and copyright issues. Through this approach, Singingfish.com has already indexed over five million unique streams and downloadable mp3s. By the end of the year, the company anticipates that number will increase to more than eight million based on current projections for the growth of streaming media online.
* John Townley is an editor with internetnews.com, a property of internet.com.