AOL’s Truveo Builds Video Search Network With 40 Million Users

Video search engine Truveo, acquired by AOL in late 2005, announced that it now has a user base of almost 40 million monthly uniques (per comScore). This is not at Truveo.com but across a diverse network of partner sites, which it powers. The company also said that since late last year it has seen 50 percent “month over month” growth across that network.

Truveo CEO (and AOL Video SVP) Tim Tuttle attributes this to the copyright crackdown on YouTube and the efforts that users are making to find video content they used to find on YouTube from other sources. It may also be that users are generally consuming more online video. However, even though video search has been around for several years, it cannot be disputed that the rise of YouTube substantially fueled the present appetite for online video and video search that Truveo is benefiting from.

In the same release, Truveo announced a number of new partners that include Brightcove, Clevver, CSTV, Flock, Pageflakes, PureVideo, Qwest, Search.com, Sportingo, Netvibes, Widgetbox and YourMinis. In addition to the new partners and AOL, Truveo is used by Microsoft, InfoSpace and numerous others. Truveo also has an API.

Tuttle and I spoke about online video advertising and the likelihood that eventually the Truveo network would become a distribution channel for Advertising.com advertisers seeking to distribute online video ads or advertising around online video streams. Advertising.com, the largest online ad network in terms of reach, is also owned by AOL.

Truveo regards its competition as Google, Yahoo and to a lesser degree Blinkx and other, smaller video search sites.