• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 27, 2008

White-label widget maker KickApps today is launching a new feature on its community-building platform Yuku for members to search, play and share video online. The service is the result of a partnership with Web video-search platform maker ClipBlast, which is providing the one-click video embedding feature.

"We're making it as easy for users to share video as it is for them to share words and photos," said Alex Blum, KickApps CEO.

Yuku members can now search and preview video from the ClipBlast video index. Members can then embed the searched video directly in their posts and blogs to share with the Yuku community without having to leave their message to hunt for content.

Yuku--which presently is drawing 7 million unique monthly visitors, according to Compete--differs from the average social network in that it invites consumers to create their own micro-communities.

Each with their own twist on the platform business, KickApps is one among an estimated 40 white-label social service providers--including ONEsite, Userplane, LiveWorld, SixApart, Ning, CrowdVine, Dave Networks, CollectiveX, Me.com, iBelong, and Haystack, to name a few.

Amid rapid consolidation in the space, rumors recently surfaced that AOL is closely eyeing KickApps for a reported price of $90 million.

The Web software maker--which makes widgets for companies, which it helps them monetize--has so far raised $17 million in two rounds of venture capital financing, the most recent being August 2007.

KickApps clients include ABC Family, CW Television, Scripps Network Interactive, HBO, and Cinemax, to name a few.

For its part, ClipBlast has been aggressively adding feature after feature to stay one step ahead of the competition.

"Our partnership represents the cutting edge of the new Web, where innovative technologies join together via APIs to customize their user experiences on-the-fly," said Gary Baker, ClipBlast founder and CEO.

Last year, it added a Video Navigator, which crawls the entire Web for video content, and lets viewers browse video in several different ways by selecting categories ranging from animals to wellness and major content providers from ABC to YouTube.

ClipBlast also recently unveiled a video widget, which resides on users' desktops, enabling search, navigation, browsing and viewing of the Video Web without having to launch a browser or visit a specific Web site. ClipBlast is working with video-content providers--including MySpace, Showtime, Fox, CBS and independent producers--to create customized, branded versions of the Video Widget for specific target audiences.