Google just launched its video intake engine. I mean just launched. It’s here. Looks like you might need a gmail account to get in. Since I have one, I am not sure.

You are asked to download an installer (small .exe file) that allows you to scan your directory. It now supports a lot of varied formats, but not my MPEG-4. I alerted Google and they will have it added within a day.

The goal, as Google explains, is to understand the nature of what’s out there in the video world in terms of content types and topics. They will build taxonomy and indexing based mostly on XML tags. So, the more you tag and the more precise your tags, the more in-depth the taxonomy.

Down the road, it’s likely Google will want to be an enabler between content creator and consumer by offering a service that either inserts ads (using Ad Sense) or collects fees on behalf of consumer creators. So, as someone asked me last week—YES, Google might become a hosting site.

Video search has gone from red hot to white hot.

From out of seeming nowhere, we are about to be inundated with companies wanting to search, index and offer feeds to Podcasts and Videoblogs. Sure, it’s a good idea.

But wait…there’s more. If a consumer creator needs to submit his/her Podcast to each and every video/audio search wannabe, well…that’s kind of a waste. I don’t want to spend extra time submitting my audio and video wares; they can come and find me just like they do for “regular’ Web content. If Yahoo!, Google, MSN and everybody’s Great Aunt Susan asks me to fill out a form, mark off the tags/metadata and then upload my files, I’ll spend more time filling out forms than actually creating media.

And that’s bad and counter to the concept of free-flowing consumer media. If I want to fill out forms, I’ll join the Armed Forces or see a doctor.

So, content searchers and indexers…Come and find it. I’ll help if I can, but make it painless!