This past Monday Andy Plesser of Beet.TV posted an interview with PodZinger’s CEO Alex Laats on www.beet.tv. The article, Exclusive: Defense Contractor has Analyzed, Transcribed and Organized 1.5 Million YouTube Clips, features a video of the interview in which Alex explains PodZinger’s technology and why it is valuable to consumers, content owners and advertisers alike. Alex’s interview speaks to PodZinger’s desire to bring search capabilities and content to the consumer with greater ease.

Yet the article itself, as evident from the title, focuses on PodZinger’s role as a subsidiary of BBN Technologies and the relationship between BBN’s government funding and public Internet videos. Interestingly, this spin on PodZinger’s evolution and the roots of our speech-to-text technology plays into the unique fears of a post 9/11 world. One can perceive a slight, Big Brother is watching your YouTube videos message–particularly from the article’s title. We are certainly living in a different world today–one where a company’s connection to a defense contractor can make people slightly nervous or paranoid. It seems ironic to me however, that people might worry about the “government crawling” of user-generated content on public Internet websites. If I can watch your videos online, members of the White House staff could too–albeit some might need help from their kids to find the content.

For more interviews with Alex Laats check out www.podzinger.com.