PBS is announcing this morning that users of PBS.org can now search transcripts of 7,000 free videos available on the site using filters such as program title, producer, local PBS station, airdate and content format across a range of programs including Nova, Frontline, American Experience, PBS Newshour and others. Users will be able sort and share their search results with others. The search feature is enabled by RAMP, which is creating and managing the videos' metadata.
PBS also announced that it intends to launch thousands of "universal topic pages" that will aggregate content across formats (video, audio, text, images) for a particular topic. This model has been used successfully by other media companies such as the NYTimes.com. By bringing together all topical content in one page, the user experience is enhanced and the page obtains a higher ranking in searches, therefore leading to more views and targeted ad inventory. Social media features for easy sharing will also be available on all of PBS's universal topic pages.