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July 30, 2008 2:44 PM PDT

Google acquires Omnisio for video annotations

by Stephen Shankland

Omnisio lets people add annotations and captions to videos.

Omnisio lets people add annotations and captions to videos.

(Credit: Omnisio)

Apparently Google concluded it could use a little help with its own YouTube annotation technology:the company said Wednesday it's acquired Omnisio, a start-up that lets people add annotations to video.

Google announced the acquisition on its YouTube blog Wednesday but didn't disclose terms.

"We're big fans of anything that lets people interact with online video and gives the YouTube community the chance to express themselves in creative ways," Google's YouTube team said. "The Omnisio team has tremendous technical expertise when it comes to advanced video tools and having this kind of talent at YouTube should help us further explore ways to enhance your YouTube experience."

Omnisio's technology can be used to insert comments such as cartoon-style talk bubbles in videos. The company also lets people embed presentation slides next to videos, combine multiple video clips, and add tags that can help people navigate to a desired part of a video, the company said.

 Omnisio's three founders: CEO Ryan Junee, User Experience Director Julian Frumar, and CTO Simon Ratner

Omnisio's three founders: CEO Ryan Junee, User Experience Director Julian Frumar, and CTO Simon Ratner

(Credit: Omnisio)

Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank.
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by tekwiz4u July 30, 2008 3:24 PM PDT
Great. More blatent product placement and annoying bubbles.
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by miob_istream July 30, 2008 3:41 PM PDT
It will be interesting to see how Google integrates advertising or should I say how they tie annotations to "keywords" used to generate ads. Video ads space is heating up and Google understands how valuable are sessions (time spent on site), especially video sessions that are substantially higher than standard page sessions.
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by someguy999 July 30, 2008 4:55 PM PDT
I just read somewhere about a bs companies being bought for millions...here's another one:)
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