An audio indexing system for election video material

In the 2008 presidential election race in the United States, the prospective candidates made extensive use of YouTube to post video material. We developed a scalable system that transcribes this material and makes the content searchable (by indexing the meta-data and transcripts of the videos) and allows the user to navigate through the video material based on content. The system is available as an iGoogle gadget¹ as well as a Labs product (labs.google.com/gaudi). Given the large exposure, special emphasis was put on the scalability and reliability of the system. This paper describes the design and implementation of this system.