Video Search Engine Blinkx Launches Web TV

Video search engine Blinkx is launching its own Internet TV service called BBTV. Viewers will be able to surf the web within full-screen video, as well as jump around using keyword search for specific dialog. This is was something Blinkx Founder & CTO, Suranga Chandratillake has hinted to me way back at one of the WebGuild events.

According to Blinkx the service harnesses their core speech recognition video transcription technology to offer searchability and clickable subtitles that point to web pages. This allows advertisements to be targeted to certain keywords in BBTV, similar to the text ad overlay used in video by their AdHoc ad network.

The service runs on a peer-to-peer network has signed up indie films from Dogwoof Pictures, Gateway Films and Playboy Networks.

SOLD OUT!

Premier Expo Passes for the upcoming Web 2.0 Conference & Expo are SOLD OUT! Early bird registration ends today, December 31 ($199 for Members and $299 for Non-Members). Starting Jan. 1, regular registration pricing will be in effect ($299 for Members and $399 for Non-Members). FREE Expo Only passes are still available but we will need to cut those off at some point. Hope to see you there. Don't miss it. Register here.

Five Days Remaining for Early Bird Registration

Early bird registration for the upcoming Web 2.0 Conference & Expo ends in 5 days on December 31st, 2007. The cost is $199 for members, $299 for non-members, and Expo Only passes are FREE. On Jan 1, ticket prices will go up. Don't miss your chance to take advantage of this offer and to attend this cutting-edge Conference. Register here.

Limited Spots Remaining for Web 2.0 Conference Expo & Showcase

The WebGuild's Web 2.0 Conference & Expo is coming up on January 29. The conference focuses on how to apply Web 2.0 technologies to business with reps from more than 50 leading companies in attendance.

If your company would like to participate in the Conference, here are three ways to do that:
1) Panels - speaking (limited spots). Selected companies will be paired with an industry giant in their respective space. No cost to participate.
2) Showcase companies (limited spots) - each company gets 10 mins - 5 to present & 5 for Q&A. No cost to participate.
3) Expo - $2500, includes table, electricity, internet access, free to distribute material.

Why would you want to showcase your company?
-Expected audience size: 1000
-20 big time VCs already signed up (VCs focused on web companies) and more coming
-Opportunity to get in front of a highly targeted group of web professionals

Introducing Sebastien Provencher

Just a short note to introduce myself. I'm the latest addition to the WebGuild blogger team. My areas of expertise are local search and social media. Hope you enjoy my contributions to the site!

My official bio:
Sebastien Provencher is Co-Founder & VP, Product Management at Praized Media, a newly-funded stealth start-up operating in the local/social space. He has more than 10 years experience in local search, interactive entertainment and online media. From 1999 to 2007, Sebastien played an instrumental role in formulating Yellow Pages Group's online strategy, notably developing their most successful online advertising product ever (DirectoryPlus), striking a strategic partnership with Google, and creating a vision around local search. Sebastien is also the blogger behind The Praized Blog. He can be reached at seb AT praized.com.

Next Generation Social Networking

Last Wednesday, the WebGuild held its monthly event on the "Next Generation of Social Networking" featuring Jonathan Abrams, Founder & CEO of Socializr & Freindster fame, Jia Shen, CTO of Rock You, and Sundeep Ahuja, Founder of Appfuels. It was a highly social event - well attended and high energy.

If you missed it, the video of this event will be available in about a week. View photos.

Social Network for Web Industry Launched

We are very excited at WebGuild to announce the launch of our Social Networking Community exclusively for Web Professionals.

It's free and allows you to connect with over 30,000 other web professionals.

Get Started! Complete profile Sign up for an account and add as much or as little information about your self. Join groups and submit and answer questions. Join groups in your subject area(s) of interest and get and share knowledge with peers via our online discussion board. Share and promote sites working on. Discover, submit, and rate sites you're working on or just love that you would like to share with the community. Invite and keep in touch with your network. Invite new and existing contacts into your network and communicate with them via our messaging tool. Post and find jobs. Post jobs and find your next gig!

As always, let us know how we can continue to better serve you and improve the services and features. Look forward to your comments, feedback, and suggestions.

Enjoy!