About SearchByVideo

Who we are

SearchByVideo is an independent software product built and operated by Jack Tao, an individual independent developer based in China. SearchByVideo is self-funded and independent, and it grew out of a problem we kept running into: the footage we needed was always somewhere in a file we already had, but there was no fast way to find it. We started SearchByVideo in 2025 to fix that with modern multimodal AI, and we have been refining it with feedback from real users ever since. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google, YouTube, or any other platform whose tools we integrate with; any trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.

Our mission

Video is now the default way people record work, teach, market, and remember — yet it remains the hardest media to search. A 10,000-word document is searchable in a keystroke; a two-hour recording is a black box you have to watch end to end. Our mission is to make the inside of a video as searchable as a text document, using plain language, so that the knowledge already captured in your footage stops being locked away by playback time.

What SearchByVideo is — and what it is not

This distinction matters, because it is the single thing new visitors most often get wrong:

• What it is: a tool to search within your own videos. You upload a video, our AI indexes every scene, and you describe the moment you want in natural language — a person, an action, an object, an on-screen word, even a mood. SearchByVideo returns the exact timestamps where it appears so you can jump straight there.
• What it is NOT: a reverse video search engine. We do not tell you where a clip came from or find copies of a video across the web. We look inside the footage you give us. If you need to trace a video’s origin, that is a different category of tool.

How the technology works

When you upload a video, SearchByVideo samples it into representative frames and passes them through a multimodal vision-language model that understands what is happening on screen — objects, people, actions, settings, and readable text — rather than relying on a transcript. Because the analysis is visual, it works on completely silent footage, on footage in a language we do not caption, and on scenes where nobody says the thing you are looking for out loud. Each detected moment is aligned back to a precise timestamp, so a search like “the moment the box is opened” or “whiteboard with a diagram” resolves to the exact second in your file. Your search queries run against this index instantly and cost nothing, so you can explore a video from many angles once it has been analyzed.

Who uses SearchByVideo

Our users span any workflow where the answer is buried in a long recording. Content creators and video editors pull specific b-roll and reaction shots out of hours of raw footage. Educators and students jump to the exact point a concept is explained in a recorded lecture. Coaches and analysts scan game or training recordings for a specific play. Support, research, and operations teams retrieve the one moment they need from screen recordings and meeting captures. In every case the value is the same: time that used to be spent scrubbing is given back.

Our commitment to your data

We treat your footage as yours. Videos are uploaded over encrypted HTTPS connections, processed in secure cloud environments, and are not permanently stored on our servers after analysis. We are transparent about the third parties involved in delivering the service and about how cookies and identifiers are used on this website. You can read the full details in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Company & contact information

SearchByVideo is operated by Jack Tao, an individual independent developer (sole proprietor) based in and subject to the laws of China. For any question — product help, billing, privacy requests, partnership, or press — email us at support@searchbyvideo.net. We typically respond within 24 hours. You can also reach us through our Contact page.