Google acquires Omnisio for video annotations

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

(Credit: Omnisio)

[tekwiz4u]

Great. More blatent product placement and annoying bubbles.

[miob_istream]

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.

[someguy999]

I just read somewhere about a bs companies being bought for millions...here's another one:)