AOL Takes Truveo Video Search Worldwide

AOL, which is trying to grow its online advertising business worldwide, has localized its video search site for eight countries and added two languages for its India portal, the company said Wednesday.

AOL has extended the local versions of its Truveo video search site to France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the U.K. Within two months, versions will be launched for Australia, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Russia and Turkey, the company said.

Truveo came under AOL's wing in early 2006, and the company has sought grow the site as its traffic figures have risen with increased demand for online video.

Unlike Google's YouTube, Truveo doesn't store content but instead indexes it from sources around the Internet. Truveo can pull some videos into a window embedded in its Web site, or direct users to where the video is hosted. Truveo also groups videos by category, and AOL has created some localized popular categories, such as cricket-related clips for India.

AOL's main site for India is in English, but the company said it has added new content channels in Tamil and Hindi that cover news, astrology and movies. AOL said more than half of Indians who are active online users -- about 30 million people -- prefer reading in their own native language.

AOL, which is owned by Time Warner, is trying to change the focus of its from providing Internet access to helping people find and view content. The company had seen a sharp drop in subscription revenue, which still counts for the majority of its profits.

Earlier this month, AOL said it would cut 2,000 jobs worldwide, or about 20 percent of its workforce, while building up its online advertising business. It recently acquired three online ad firms and started Platform A, a new subsidiary in charge of selling online ads across its Web properties.