• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, September 18, 2006

Hoping to build its brand as a free video site, AOL is offering to distribute its video search engine to other Web publishers for free.

"It's a play based on the belief that by helping the entire industry grow, we'll help ourselves grow," said Tim Tuttle, vice president of AOL Video.

AOL is making available open video search application programming interfaces that Web publishers can place on their own sites for free, but with a limit of 10,000 searches per day. If volume goes beyond that, AOL would then seek branding on the site and/or revenue, said Tuttle, who previously served as CEO and founder of the video search engine Truveo, which AOL purchased last year for around $50 million.

AOL also is allowing video content owners to distribute their videos throughout the Web by submitting feeds to the AOL video search engine. AOL will then review the sites of content owners that submit feeds to make sure their videos don't infringe on copyright, Tuttle said. If approved, those sites' videos will then be available at any site that powers its video search with AOL.

Separately, AOL today is also launching its AOL Video service for computers with Intel Viiv; the new service will enable consumers with Viiv technology in their computers to more easily view AOL Video on large-screen TVs.