AOL relaunches Truveo video search engine

A year and a half after snatching up video search engine Truveo, AOL (this blog's parent company) has relaunched the site. It's bigger, better, and easier to use. But it's also not exactly a Google/Youtube killer.

Like the relaunched Google Video site, the new Truveo's not so much about letting users submit their own videos. Rather, Truveo gives you a central location to search for web videos. You can search user-generated video sites like YouTube, or mainstream media sites like NBC.com or CNN.com.

When you happen across a flash video, odds are you'll be able to watch it without leaving Truveo. The video player takes up most of your browser screen, showing YouTube videos, for example, at about twice their original size. That would be great if it weren't for the fact that YouTube videos are designed for a smaller viewer. Blowing them up usually makes them look worse.

But the bigger problem is that while Truveo can help you find professionally produced video from news and entertainment sources, many of these videos won't display outside of their original context. That means you click on a thumbnail, get taken to a Truveo sub-page, and then find out that you'll have to visit yet another site to watch the video.

Even if you can find more content using Truveo than Google Video, we're not sure the new site will catch on unless AOL introduces a tool that lets you visit external websites without losing access to your Truveo search bar. You know, kind of like the one Google Video uses.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Tags: online video, OnlineVideo, truveo, video search, VideoSearch