how to extract video and audio meta data?

Why not go beyond Dropbox by searching and browsing everyone's local data?

• Users would have a shared folder on their computer where content would be indexed in real-time for everyone to search and browse via a site on the web. All content in the shared folder would be uploaded automatically and immediately so anyone can access it. Search would take into account not only file names but also content whenever possible.  Search results would be displayed in a way that takes into account content whenever possible as well. Examples: The user might edit a document in the shared folder while brainstorming. Anyone would be able to see the document update in real-time as the user brainstorms. Instead of uploading a video to a video sharing site manually, the user could just copy a video into the shared folder. Note that as the data would be uploaded to the search engine site,  the client doesn't need to be online all the time. Finally, adding optional meta data to and discussing uploaded content would be done on the server.

• Answer:

  There are many different ideas here, and many different ways to take things apart and then put them back together. Wowd originally had a foundation of a distributed hashtable file system, or DHTFS.  (See a Wowd patent on this, here:  http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7%2C716%2C179.PN.&OS=PN%2F7%2C716%2C179&RS=PN%2F7716179 .)  In this model, each computer contributes a little bit of storage and processing power so as to build a distributed compute cloud that implements the core functions of a search engine (specifically, indexing, query serving, and ranking). The question of where the indexed material comes from is separable.  One can use anonymized user page visitation data to create a virtual distributed crawler.  Or one can use "realtime" stream inputs such as can be obtained from Twitter.  Or one can use a regular automatic robot crawler (centralized or distributed).  Appropriately anonymized click data can also be used to implement improved ranking.  (See a Wowd patent on this, here:  http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7716205.PN.&OS=PN%2F7716205&RS=PN%2F7716205 .)  It's clear that Google's own toolbar, AdSense program, and Chrome browser are obviously used to collect clickstream data from a large number of end users.