Last year, Virage's launch of its Internet video search engine coincided with the release of President Bill Clinton's video testimony in the Monica Lewinsky case. Today, its technology has become core to much of the Web's video search capabilities.

This week, Reuters, a big Virage customer, led a $20 million mezzanine round of funding for the Silicon Valley-based Virage. New investor Weston Presidio Capital contributed to the round, along with Altavista, Adobe Ventures, Media Technology Ventures, Neocarta Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Trinity Ventures.

The new funding provides a "runway for an IPO liquidity event in the first half of next year," says Virage Marketing Vice President Carlos Montalvo.

Reuters has been licensing Virage's video cataloging software for several years. The technology allows its staff members to quickly search through hours of video for items relevant to broadcasts. Other customers include CNN, which uses the technology to allow reporters and editors easy access to specific video clips in the company's large video vault.

THE SEARCH IS ONWhile most of the company's revenues currently are generated by licensing software, Virage sees a bigger opportunity providing its search engine technology for the Internet, and charging a fee per thousand search queries.

"We see ourselves as the Inktomi of video," claims Mr. Montalvo. "Virage wants to provide the infrastructure technology behind all video searches on the Internet."

Currently, the company provides video search engine technology to media companies such as ABCnews.com, CNet, iVillage, and Washingtonpost.com. Virage also recently struck a deal with C-Span to coproduce a search engine for video of the current presidential campaign. According to Virage, the technology will enable people, via the Internet, to search by candidate, location, or campaign issue. By typing in words such as "guns," "abortion," or "taxes," users may compare statements made by different candidates at different times during the campaign.

POWER TO THE PEOPLEJeremy Schwartz, senior analyst with research firm Forrester Research, says tools such as Virage's video search technology will become more important as Internet users become increasingly broadband-enabled.

"This is important technology for empowering consumers to make sense of the growing chaos of content," Mr. Schwartz says. "Video search will become the de facto requirement for all content providers."

The analyst says Virage is a market leader in Internet video searches. Mediasite (formerly called Islip) provides similar technology, but is completely focused on the Web. FasTV, also well known in this space, is a destination site rather than an infrastructure play.

"FasTV is actually one of our customers," Mr. Montalvo says. "They are developing a traditional content aggregation strategy for video that competes with the CNNs, Disneys, and other content plays."

STAYING ON TRACKMr. Schwartz says Virage is more likely to compete with other technologies that help broadband users aggregate and organize content. He cites Tivo and Replay Networks as companies that offer different technologies that help users sort through video content. "Virage doesn't have a monopoly on helping users make sense of content chaos," says the analyst.

Still, Virage is well positioned to create a viable business in an increasingly broadband world. "I don't see it as one of those companies that will fall off the tracks," Mr. Schwartz says.