• by Gavin O'Malley , November 15, 2005

From former President Bill Clinton's magnetic orations to columnist Thomas Friedman's discourse on foreign affairs, search engine blinkx today is expected to add hundreds of hours of academic lectures and events to its video stores following non-exclusive partnerships with top U.S. and foreign universities.

The announcement comes as Google, Yahoo!, and Amazon struggle to make the public and copyrighted archives of various libraries searchable in the future.

Blinkx's efforts were assisted by a partnership with the University Channel project, an initiative of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs that aims to make academic video content available to the public. Just a few of the University Channel's existing partners include Columbia University, Harvard University and Harvard Law, and Princeton University.

Starting today, blinkx users should be able to search the school's video archives by specific keywords.

Donna Liu, executive director of the University Channel, said there are no plans to monetize the project's content. "We don't want the public discourse to be 'brought to you' by anybody other than the University," she said. "Our goal is to provide this material as a public service."

In early October, Yahoo! announced plans to make the archives of various libraries searchable after partnering with several groups, including the Internet Archive, Adobe Systems Inc., HP Labs, and the University of California. The newly formed Open Content Alliance is running the venture. Google also is scanning in books from major universities.