Los Angeles - Since I reported on Google's new video search engine beta test, I've received a ton of emails (and surprising enough, phone calls) asking how independent film, and music producers can get in on the action. Unfortunately, when I reposted the original story , I simply forwarded it to my online journal/blog (see links below) as part of my normal distribution to newsgroups and bulletin boards.

That being said, let me take this opportunity to expound on the coming opportunities for free promotion and exposure of music videos, independent films and television programming (think Black talk shows).

With the advent and wide acceptance of mobile Net connectivity, such as Wi-Fi and cell phones, added with the popularity of multimedia devices, such as iPod and in-car LCD screens, the paradigm for music/film distribution has totally flipped. We all know of the impact search engines had on the success of the Internet.

Now with the Internet maturing into an entertainment platform for Rich Media (film/music/books), via convergence devices that combine computer, communications and television features, search engines, will become as essential to finding Rich Media, as they are today in finding web pages. Search engine technology will essentially do to TV Guides what they did to encyclopedias...make them Extinct.

Now in a rush to fill the public's insatiable appetite for Rich Media programming (think podcasting, file sharing, video blogs, and IPTV) the major search engine companies, such as Google, Yahoo and the like, are in a full out race to meet the demand for Rich Media.

As I reported earlier this month, Google is secretly recording and indexing TV programming, independent films, music videos, and even homemade handicams, to make Rich Media searchable online, much the way it brings library books to the Web. Microsoft, too, is developing a platform and search engine for searchable media that would allow people using the Internet, X-Box or a television to find Rich Media.

America Online recently updated its multimedia engine Singingfish and has incorporated video search into its main site. Yahoo has launched it's beta site, which searches for files in Microsoft's Windows Media, Apple Computer's QuickTime and RealNetwork's Real Media.

CNET News.com has run a series of reports on the rush to provide video storage, saying "Suddenly it seems that everyone on the Internet, from corporate giants to nonprofits, wants to host your bulky video content--free of charge

(http://news.zdnet.com/Video%20content%20set%20free%20on%20Web/2100-9588_22-5746034.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn).

Peter Lewis writing for Fortune magazine on Akimbo (http://www.akimbo.com/), says "Although the service is bizarre right now, it has the potential to do for Internet TV what Apple's iTunes Music Store did for Internet music: create a vast repository of on-demand content that can be ordered with a click and delivered legally, swiftly, and relatively inexpensively to your TV over a broadband Internet pipe."

The Hollywood Reporter writes, "a perfect storm of change: the convergence of all-digital television transmission, the prevalence of DVR-type devices, and universal forms of on-demand content -- all of it facilitated by a new standard of personalized portable interactivity." And, she warns, "the implications of some of these rapid-fire developments are so profound that they are not easily grasped by executives searching for the next hit TV series, feature film, video game, pop song or marketing campaign." (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/mermigas_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000956571).

For search providers, offering searchable video is an extremely attractive new market because it not only keeps them relevant to consumers hungry for multimedia, but it also helps them appeal to brand advertisers, which spend about $60 billion annually on commercials.

Major TV advertisers are comfortable with the effects of commercials, and they're likely to wake up to Internet opportunities once on-demand video is ubiquitous. That time is coming faster then most of us can imagine. All the major cable operators (TimeWarner, Cox, Comcast) will be offering IPTV services next year direct to the home over their new digital cable boxes.

This combined with mobile and wireless technology will allow you to build your own consumer fan base regardless of their device of choice, whether its over broadband, cable or portable media players. The magical "Last Mile" has been bridged. Now it is up to you, to cross the bridge before the powers that be (think RIAA, MPA, and government) set up toll booths

So where do you start??? All the companies and dot.coms named above are begging for original content such as YOURS. They have set up free Developer Forum's on their websites, that provide technical data, white papers, and bulletin boards for you to lean how to distribute YOUR content through their website. Secondly, you can run my byline "Jim Neusom" through any search engine, to read the multitude of articles and links I've published on streaming and distributing video over the Net.

We (meaning Black people) are the originators of American Pop Culture. The big five entertainment conglomerates, can not possibly fill the demand for Rich Media, any more then the three major news syndicates, could fill the demand for national news. Now is the time for us to enjoy the fruits of our labor, instead of begging for the crumbs off the table.

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Here is the link to the original text on the Google story (http://advancedmediacommittee.typepad.com/) and a Black owned company that is trying to get into the game ((http://www.BlackTVOnline.com). Also check out Lee Green of the National Black Business Trade Association (http://www.nbbta.org). He is an innovator in Video Mail technology and a proponent of streaming video for home-based entrepreneurs who want to take full advantage of the latest technology and telecommunications available on the Internet.

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This article submission was brought to you by InterServe Networks. Feel Free To Forward To The Appropriate Editor and/or Feature Writer.

Jim Neusom
Executive Director/Publisher
InterServe Networks/City Lights Software, Inc.
www.citylightssoftware.com
www.jazzentertainment.org
www.thebigcomeup.com
www.theviptour.com
www.afrogolf.com
(702) 348-2041 Las Vegas
(323) 294-1755 Los Angeles

Brother Jim Neusom will be keeping the Black community updated on the most current social and technology news. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

To subscribe to Neusom's column join the Afromerica email list to receive new information as it is updated. Or E-mail Neusom at: jneusom@yahoo.com

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