Truveo Developer Challenge Offers $100,000 in Prizes for New Video Search Applications

GLASTONBURY, Conn., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- TopCoder(R), Inc., the leader in online programming competition, skills assessment and competitive software development, today announced the Truveo Developer Challenge. With a prize pool of $100,000, developers will compete to build customized applications that use Truveo's open API for video search available at developer.truveo.com. Truveo is the world's leading video search engine with an index containing over 170 million videos that is continuously updated, cleaned and expanded to include the latest videos from the most popular video destinations on the Web. Competition details are available at www.topcoder.com/truveo and Truveo can be accessed at www.truveo.com.

Building off the success of AOL's Open AIM Developer Challenge, which introduced more than 50 exciting new plug-in applications for AIM (see today's press release announcing winners or visit the contest homepage at: http://www.topcoder.com/openaim), TopCoder will apply the skills of its global community of top ranked software designers and developers to extend the rich functionality of Truveo's open APIs, competing to build the most exciting new video search applications. Developers can turn any website or social network, into the ultimate destination for online video with new and creative solutions that showcase millions of videos. Contestants can also enhance an existing website with an application placing relevant video clips alongside other content for a more engaging experience. Participants are being encouraged to build widgets, gadgets or applications for social network sites, AIM, Web portals or operating systems such as Microsoft Vista or Apple OSX. Developers are also being encouraged to use the Truveo API with different AOL open APIs to create new applications.

"TopCoder competitions attract the world's top developers so we are very excited to give them a chance to unleash their creativity and work with a product as cutting edge, fun and exciting as Truveo," said Denis Horgan, Vice President of Community Development for TopCoder.

"By working with TopCoder on the Truveo Developer's Challenge, we've set the top developers in the world loose to see what creative video-based search applications they can build with Truveo's open APIs," said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President of AOL. "We're excited to see what new innovations arise from the creativity of the TopCoder community."

Truveo is the leading video search engine on the Web, and powers many of the Web's most popular video destinations, from AOL, Microsoft Corporation, CNET's Search.com, to hundreds of other web sites and applications worldwide. Across the network of websites it powers, Truveo reaches an audience of over 70 million users every month.

Join the Competition

AOL has teamed up with TopCoder to put the Truveo Open APIs in the hands of the best developers in the world. Now it's your chance to show us what you've got for a piece of $100,000 in prize money. We will award nine (9) $10,000 prizes and twenty (20) $500 prizes for the most creative, successful and ingenious submissions.

To enter, view all contest rules and details online at www.topcoder.com/truveo. Showcase your application on your own site or blog, or any one of the social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, Cyworld, Skyblog, Hi5, Orkut, or Live Journal. Passing submissions will be showcased on the AOL Developer Network and TopCoder as well.

Submissions must be received by July 21, 2008 and winners will be judged on innovation, actual usage statistics, best use of the Truveo search functionality and popularity as voted upon by both Truveo and the TopCoder member community. Winners will be announced in a joint press release by Truveo and TopCoder on July 31, 2008.

The Truveo Video Search APIs come in four flavors: XML, AJAX, Flash and Ruby. The XML API allows users to submit REST-style queries and receive XML-formatted results to standard HTTP GET requests. The AJAX API runs in the browser and lets client applications access video search results directly from JavaScript. The Flash API runs in Macromedia Flash and allows Flash applications to access video search results. The Ruby API is a mapping of the XML API for use in Ruby programs.

About Truveo

Truveo is the search engine for video, making it possible for consumers to search and browse through over 100 million videos from thousands of sources across the Web. Truveo was founded by some of the industry's leading experts in video search technology and has built one of the largest and most up-to-date indexes of high-quality video on the Web. As a result, Truveo enables users to find video that cannot be found in any other search engine. Truveo first launched its industry-leading search engine in 2005 and today, the Truveo search engine powers video search on some of the most popular destinations on the Web, including AOL Video, AOL Search, Brightcove, CBS RADIO's sites, Clevver, CSTV, Excite, Flock, Infospace, Kosmix, Microsoft Corporation, Pageflakes, PureVideo, Qwest, CNET's Search.com, Sportingo, Widgetbox and YourMinis, reaching an audience of over 70 million users a month. Truveo's critically-acclaimed flagship destination, www.truveo.com, has received widespread praise, establishing itself as the leader in the fast- growing video search market.

About TopCoder, Inc.

TopCoder is the world's largest competitive software development community with over 150,000 developers representing over 200 countries. TopCoder hosts the largest and most comprehensive developer ratings and performance metrics available. The TopCoder community builds software for a wide-ranging client base through a competitive, rigorous, standards based methodology. This methodology results in a highly consistent set of software components allowing a software-as-parts approach to application development. TopCoder makes this large library of software components built through competition available to all of our clients. Utilizing a world-wide member base and this library, TopCoder seeks to lower the cost of software development while increasing both the speed at which applications can be developed and the quality of the ultimate application. For more information about sponsoring TopCoder events, recruiting TopCoder members and utilizing TopCoder's software services, visit http://www.topcoder.com.

TopCoder is a registered trademark of TopCoder, Inc. inthe United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

    Media Contacts:
    Mike Schultz, Message Infusion PR for TopCoder
    978-496-1012, topcoder@messageinfusion.com

    Joshua Weinberg, Digital Life PR for Truveo
    415-777-3339, joshua@Dlifepr.com

SOURCE TopCoder, Inc.

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