Photobucket forges iPhone app, Ask partnership
Looks like some big-media deal-making went into this one.
Photobucket, the photo-sharing site that was acquired by News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media last year, has announced the launch of an iPhone application (download), just like everybody else.
Users can browse their Photobucket albums, as well as upload images from the iPhone to the service with a single click. The application costs $4.99.
But Photobucket had a more interesting announcement on Thursday, namely a multiyear partnership with Ask.com, the search engine owned by new-media conglomerate InterActiveCorp.
Through the deal, Photobucket will use exclusively Ask.com search for its photo, video, and Web searches, and some of Ask.com's text and display ads will be shown on Photobucket. No financial specifics were mentioned.
"Photobucket has one of the largest online audiences, and now Ask.com provides these consumers with the answers to the questions they ask every day," said Andrew Moers, general manager of partnerships for Ask, the No. 4 player in search. "This alliance furthers our strategy to bring Ask.com to consumers worldwide through a broad range of Internet access points."
Photobucket sister company MySpace, meanwhile, has its search (and many of its ads) handled by Google. But on that note, Google has provided ad technology to Ask.com since the dinosaur days of 2004.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
The press release below shows that blinkx powers video search for Ask.com and I guess may well be providing advertising on those videos searched for at Photobucket in the same way as with Ask.com? As the article above says though, financial details have not been disclosed at this time.
Cambridge, England - June 5, 2007 - blinkx plc (?blinkx?), the world?s largest video search engine, today announced that it will power video search at Ask.com, a leading search destination and wholly-owned business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI). In addition, blinkx will also provide the video search capabilities for Ask.com?s Smart Answers. Ask.com users will benefit from blinkx?s index of over 12 million hours of audio and video content.
blinkx will generate revenue from this relationship through video searches undertaken by Ask.com users.
?Ask.com?s momentum is impressive and we?re very proud to be powering their new video search offering,? said Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO, blinkx. ?This relationship further demonstrates our technology leadership in the video search space and is an exciting development for our 130 or so media partners whose content can now be accessed through Ask.com.?
As the pioneer in video search technology, blinkx has built a reputation as the smartest way to search new forms of online content such as video. With more than 130 media partners and 12 million hours of indexed video and audio content, including favorite TV moments, news clips, short documentaries, music videos, video blogs and more, blinkx uses advanced speech recognition technology to deliver results that are more accurate and reliable than standard metadata-based keyword searches.
About blinkx
blinkx plc (LSE AiM: BLNX) is the world's most comprehensive video search engine. Today, blinkx has indexed more than 12 million hours of audio, video, viral and TV content, and made it fully searchable and available on demand. blinkx's founders set out to solve a significant challenge - as TV and user-generated content on the Web explode, keyword-based search technologies only scratch the surface. blinkx's patented search technologies listen to - and even see - the Web, helping users enjoy a breadth and accuracy of search results not available elsewhere. In addition, blinkx powers the video search for many of the world's most frequented sites. blinkx is based in San Francisco and London. More information is available at www.blinkx.com
Media Contact:
Financial Dynamics
Edward Bridges/Haya Chelhot/Charles Palmer/Nicola Biles
+44 (0)20 7831 3113
http://www.blinkx.com/article/ask-selects-blinkx-power-video-search~385