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Microsoft announces partnership deal with Blinkx to power searches via MSN video, throwing their hat in the ring with others making splashes in online video news on Monday.

On an afternoon rife with online video news, the announcement today that Microsoft would partner with Blinkx.tv adds the company's name to an ever-growing list of of those looking to capitalize on the seemingly endless marketing possibilities associated with online video content providers.

Blinkx, based out of San Francisco, was founded in 2004 and currently has more than five million hours of television and video content contained within their index.

Unlike the widely popular YouTube, however, Blinkx is not a repository for online video in the conventional sense.

Instead, the company provides index and search services for content housed on partner sites such as AOL, Lycos, and Times Online, to name a few.

With this type of proven search functionality, one can only assume that Microsoft will also utilize Blinkx's technology for use with Soapbox, the software giant's answer to YouTube and MySpace Video.

In a twist, the search agreement is structured in terms of a licensing fee directly based on visitor usage of the video search tool.

This is a departure from traditional search agreements where the two parties would normally agree to divide a percentage of the advertising revenue. So depending on the feature's popularity, both Blinkx and Microsoft could see highly fluctuating revenues.

Suranga Chandratillake, Blinkx founder and CTO boasts in a Washington Post article that the partnership with Microsoft will instantly transform the outfit into "the single biggest video search engine on the Web."

While that fact remains uncertain, what is certain is that Microsoft is clearly trying to re-establish itself as a major player in the online video landscape, and this deal is a direct result of the company's efforts in that regard.

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Joe is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.