The beta version of Adobe Story is now available in Adobe Labs. This end-to-end workflow solution allows those involved in a video production process to work alone and/or collaboratively on scripts. Since metadata is now accurately recorded in the crucial pre-production phase, one can imagine what value it has for all the other phases – up until publication to multiple screens. Instead of trying to describe audio or video through speech-to-text or video recognition tools, which nonetheless remains valuable for archive material, Adobe recognizes the importance of metadata.

One can easily imagine what effects this will have in terms of Video SEO and Video Monetization. Since all metadata is available, publishing video will become easier. This certainly streamline VSEO efforts, although some SEO-friendly copywriting skills will still be required. Interactivity is another one: by having the dialogue available, you can make the content more easily searchable or make that paid-for product placed cereal box or Gucci dress instantly clickable.

There is one catch, however: much like the name of the product implies, it works for stories: that is, scripted content. Non-scripted content (news, interviews) still depends on either manual transcription or automated speech-to-text software.

At SES Amsterdam, I interviewed various experts. Watch the result below:

Dutch advertisers and their SEO advisors seem to be waiting for the arrival of the next golden goose called blended search. According to Wolter Tjeenk Willink of Traffic Builders, most are still “struggling with the basics of SEO” and do not yet have a video strategy. Those who do, choose to optimize their assets for the search results in Google first, before adopting a content syndication strategy.

For the following two reasons, I find it strange that so much focus goes out to the future prospect of blended search, whereas the opportunity with content syndication is now:

1. Google + YouTube = Universal Search
   If any videos appear in the SERPs (very sporadically in the Netherlands), Google seems to be favouring YouTube and Google Video more than other sources (read: video on your own site). Since Google Video is no longer accepting new uploads, more companies should be interested in video content syndication on the most popular platform out there.
2. YouTube > Yahoo! & MSN
   For the first time, in november 2008, YouTube as a search engine was bigger than Google’s competitors Yahoo! and MSN. Although these are US-based statistics, YouTube takes up a leading position in the Netherlands as well.

Read the article (in Dutch) on Frankwatching as well.