• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, October 4, 2007

Digital media search provider Pixsy has reached a deal to power video and image search for Web TV startup Veoh Networks.

This summer, Veoh launched Veoh TV as a downloadable interface for consumers to search, browse and view online video--from network programming on Fox and CBS to independently produced content on YouTube and MySpace. Its Web version, Veoh.com, presently draws some 18 million unique users per month.

Onto those services, Veoh can now apply Pixsy's technology, which trawls the Web on an hourly basis, aggregating and categorizing video and image results into various content verticals.

Similar to Pixsy's partnerships with about 100 lesser-known sites, the Veoh deal involves stand-alone fees and revenue-sharing, according to Pixsy CEO Chase Norlin.

"We're in the business of helping sites like Veoh profit from image and video search, the fastest-growing search verticals," Norlin explained. "We're getting these sites in the search business, which everyone understands and knows how to monetize."

Veoh, if it chooses, can still work with additional video search and aggregation partners, but it has selected Pixsy as its exclusive image provider.

With former Yahoo executive Steve Mitgang as its new CEO, more than $26 million in venture capital and Michael Eisner's backing, Veoh has been a company to watch in the emerging world of online video.

Still, it faces intense competition from YouTube and other video-sharing sites, along with the heavily backed Joost and Hulu, the soon-to-launch joint venture between NBC and Fox.

In addition, the publicly traded blinkx is planning to launch a broadband TV network by the end of the year, while Microsoft is readying a peer-to-peer Web TV service named LiveStation in cooperation with Skinkers, the British software developer.

While Norlin is intent on growing Pixsy through enterprise partnerships, it recently launched a destination site, where visitors can browse media from some 3,000 publisher sites.

"There are three stages to our long-term business strategy," said Norlin. "The first stage is building useful technology, then reaching critical mass with distribution. The third stage is monetization."

Does that mean Pixsy might one day transform itself into an ad network?

"We could go in that direction," said Norlin. "We're not there yet."