Why indexing the long tail doomed video sites

Founder and CEO Roman Arzhintar on how video evolved from indexing to curating

A number of video search engines emerged in 2005-2006, only to find themselves struggling to survive, or consolidated away. You can refer to these video startups as part of the YouTube era of video. But one startup, SideReel, which raised $1.5 million in angel funding since it launched in 2007, continues to deliver impressinve growth on its own.

In this interview with Roman Arzhintar, founder and CEO of SideReel, talks about the evolution of the video search engines and why some failed and others survived, and where SideReel differed. Starting five years ago, a number of sites helping to organize or index video emerged - from Guba, Grouper, Veoh, MetaCafa, Daily Motion, ClipBlast, Pixsy, Blinkx and Truveo, just to name a few. 

Many of these search engines focused on indexing every video, said Roman. "They were focused on the long tail," he said. Remember when that the "long tail" was the word du jour?

So, essentially many services spent more time indexing and less time organizing, he explained. For SideReel, the focus was always on high-quality video and the curation of it. SideReel's focus at the start and today has been to give users the best place to find their favorite TV shows. It's only more recently that SideReel is indexing Web originals, including its own productions.

Watch the rest of my interview with Roman, as he explains SideReel's demographic and how he differs from competitor Clicker.