Seattle start-up Pluggd has developed a search function that allows internet users to locate keywords within audio and video files. This significant development will lead to a Google for the audio-visual world, and with it the ability for advertisers to automatically locate advertising in proximity to audio visual content.

The HearHere service from Pluggd will be pioneering a new search feature that allows users to search within audio Internet programming and quickly find the segments they want. For the moment, search technology identifies topics within audio, whilst full audio and video capability will launching by the end of year.

Pluggd co-founder Alex Castro said:

“The number of people who enjoy podcasts or videocasts, is growing exponentially. One of the frustrations for people is that you have to listen to or watch the entire thing. It’s all or nothing. As radio and television moves more and more to the Web, we want users to easily find what they want and have a great experience.”

The HearHere feature lets the user type in a keyword representing a topic he or she is looking for and brings up a heat map within the media player that visually indicates where in the content the topic is discussed. Like a web hyperlink, people can jump exactly to what they are most interested in.

Initially during demonstrations of the technology, HearHere was promoted as a way to skip and avoid annoying ads at the beginning of podcasts. But this belies the power of the technology for advertisers in the future. There will be opportunities for the media placement to be extremely context specific during audio and video search, in much the same way that Google’s AdWords programme currently operates for text search.