Network video guide and spidering

1. A computer system for video spidering comprising:

one or more processors; and

an addressable storage medium having instructions executed by the one or more processors to perform:

a spidering process configured to

dynamically identify a script associated with at least one video on a network,

parse the script associated with the video,

execute the parsed script to identify video content, and

evaluate the executed script to generate a location identifier of the video content;

a storage configured to store known location identifiers;

a uniqueness check process configured to

check the generated location identifier against the known location identifiers, and

eliminate the generated location identifier if it is not unique or predetermined properties have not changed in reference to a known location identifier in the storage;

a grouping process configured to

group together differently encoded versions of the video content varying by bit rate or player format, and

apply a selection criterion to select one best differently encoded version of the video content; and

a harvesting process configured to

generate a time-based index of the one best differently coded version of the video content, and

store a location identifier, corresponding to the indexed video, in the storage as a known location identifier.

2. A method of video spidering, comprising:

traversing a set of hyperlinked documents by following the hyperlinks from one page to the next so as to identify existence of digital video;

identifying multiple versions of a video prior to indexing;

generating a time-based index of the video, wherein the time-based index is generated by determining an absolute time from the beginning of the video, comprising adding a delta time, the delta time representing the time from the beginning of the video to the time when metadata capture begins, to a timecode of the metadata; and

storing the time-based index in a repository along with a hyperlinked location identifier associated with the video being indexed.

3. The method defined in claim 2 , wherein identifying multiple versions further comprises:

grouping together differently encoded versions of the video that vary by bit rate; and

selectively indexing the grouped versions of the content.

4. The method defined in claim 3 , wherein the selectively indexing further comprises applying a selection criterion to select one best differently encoded version of the content.

5. The method defined in claim 2 , wherein identifying multiple versions further comprises:

grouping together differently encoded versions of the video varying by video player format; and

selectively indexing the grouped versions of the content.

6. The method defined in claim 5 , wherein the selectively indexing further comprises applying a selection criterion to select a best differently encoded version of the content.

7. A method of video spidering, comprising:

dynamically identifying a script associated with at least one video on a packet switched network, wherein the script comprises an executable software program;

parsing the identified script associated with the video;

executing the parsed script to identify a container file;

parsing the identified container file;

evaluating the parsed container file to identify a location identifier of video content; and

storing the location identifier associated with the video content.

8. The method defined in claim 7 , wherein evaluating the parsed container file comprises excluding advertising content.

9. The method defined in claim 7 , additionally comprising launching the identified video content for playback on a visual display according to the location identifier.

10. The method defined in claim 9 , wherein launching the content comprises invoking a specific coded video player of a site containing the identified video based on the location identifier.

11. The method defined in claim 7 , wherein the script is programmed in Java script or Visual Basic script.

12. The method defined in claim 7 , wherein the location identifier is a video uniform resource locator (URL).

13. The method defined in claim 7 , wherein the script is executed by a processor.

14. The method defined in claim 7 , wherein the script is executed by a browser applet.

15. A method of video spidering, comprising:

dynamically identifying a script associated with at least one video on a network, wherein the script comprises an executable software program;

parsing the identified script associated with the video;

executing the parsed script to identify content;

grouping together differently encoded versions of the same content;

selectively indexing the grouped versions of the content;

obtaining a location identifier associated with the content; and

storing the location identifier.

16. The method defined in claim 15 , wherein the script is programmed in Java script or Visual Basic script.

17. The method defined in claim 15 , additionally comprising launching the identified content for playback on a visual display according to the location identifier.

18. The method defined in claim 17 , wherein launching the identified content comprises invoking a specific coded video player of a site containing the identified video.

19. The method defined in claim 15 , wherein the differently encoded versions of the content vary by bit rate.

20. The method defined in claim 15 , wherein the differently encoded versions of the content vary by video player format.

21. The method defined in claim 15 , wherein the selectively indexing comprises applying a selection criterion to select one best differently encoded version of the content.

22. The method defined in claim 15 , wherein the script is executed by a processor.

23. The method defined in claim 15 , wherein the script is executed by a browser applet.