Google spices up YouTube via acquisition

Hong Kong - Following the announcement of a tie-up between Microsoft and Facebook last week, Google has announced the acquisition of start-up company Omnisio to spice up its YouTube offering.

Omnisio, online video network, has accepted Google's acquisition deal, and announced they will work together to develop products and features for YouTube.

Features such as video annotations, which allow user to insert comments and information into the video itself, will be added to the service.

"We believe we're only scratched the surface in terms of what's possible with online video, and we are really looking forward to taking the video viewing-and creating-experience to the next level," Ryan Junee, co-founder and CEO of Omnisio, said.

As it seeks to catch up with competitors Google and Yahoo, Microsoft will work with Facebook to bring users and advertisers Live Search-powered web search and search ads by the end of this year.

According to comScore, Google is still the No. 1 search engine in Asia, with 39% market share, followed by Yahoo which has 24%. Microsoft ranks No. 6 with a 1.8% share.