Video Search à la Web
By Janet Raloff
Some months ago, my daughter was doing a literature search
on galagos, adorable African primates better known as bush babies. As she was
preparing a paper on one species, she emailed me a photo she planned to import
into her final document. I suggested she also include a video of these amazing
vertical clingers and leapers.
I remember seeing several film clips of their breathtaking treetop acrobatics
in a college anthro class, many eons ago. These tiny big-eyed wonders would
spring off backwards from a tree trunk in the jungle’s upper canopy. Mid-air,
the critters would miraculously swing around so that as they approached the
next tree trunk they’d be ready to grab it securely with both arms and legs.
So dramatic was their mode of traveling that even now, decades later, the
imagery remains firmly fixed in my mind’s eye. I thought it would similarly
impress my daughter and her classmates. Alas, I was informed in vexed
frustration: “Mom, I looked but there are no videos of this on the Web.”
Not believing it, I spent the better part of two evenings searching for myself.
I could find stills of galagos. Even videos of a bush baby eating out of
someone’s hand at a primate center. But videos of these animals sailing from
one tree to another? I had to concede defeat. I couldn’t find a video, despite
plenty of references to the animals’ vertical-clinging-and-leaping behavior.
Still convinced that motion pix of galago treetop locomotion must exist on the
Web — after all, everything’s on the Web — I sat in on a session about
“how people find videos,” this afternoon, at the Joint Conference on Digital
Libraries, here in Pittsburgh. I figured I’d pick up some good tips. After all,
the morning’s sessions on heuristics and metadata indexing of files were
delivered by what appeared to be techno-wonks.
Unfortunately for me, the video talks described quantitatively — and, at times,
in excruciating detail — what average Web users do to locate videos on music,
hair-styling techniques, sports, and humor. Most subjects were students and
young adults in Glasgow or half a world away in Hamilton, New
Zealand. Generally fumbling their way
through the web, these volunteers sometimes found what they wanted. Other
times, like me, they failed.
A team from the University
of North Carolina
compared searches for political videos via YouTube, blogs, or a combination of
both. Bottom line: Putting a few search terms into the YouTube browser did
pretty well — and was about as likely to deliver what you wanted as also
searching blogs via Technorati and Google Blog. By comparison, hunting only via
the blog browsers delivered a lot of chaff.
The problem, as everyone remarked, traces back to a paucity of those pesky
metadata, indexing terms and details that have been linked to videos or other
digital files. In some cases, keying in Obama Girl or “spider pig” may be
enough to get you just the clip you desire. Other times, the most reasonable
terms give you gazillions of hits to wade through, or just a lot of chaff.
In any case, when I got back to my hotel room today, I searched yet again for a
vertical-clinging-and-leaping bush baby. In vain.
If any of you know where to find such a video, please send along the URL. I’d
still like to share it with my daughter — and the rest of you.
