Pixsy, a company that provides Web-based visual search services, has announced a suite of media search tools and widgets that will allow Web publishers to capitalize on media searches.

PixsyPower, launched Tuesday, allows bloggers, social networking sites, and other Web publishers to sign up for free to run video and image search engines and widgets on their sites. In three steps, publishers can deploy the search engines and widgets, which allow visitors to search the Web's media content and obtain thumbnail results without leaving the publishers' sites.

"Anyone who types in anything is going to have an entirely different experience on that site," Pixsy CEO Chase Norlin said during an interview.

When readers find something of interest and want to cross-reference the material, they will not have to go to a separate search engine to do it. The new PhotoSense Search Widget allows publishers to offer Web media searches on their own sites. Pixsy's spiders crawl the Web for content, including RSS feeds.

The entire search shows up in a widget designed like an ad unit -- a skyscraper ad, for example. The service provides text and graphical ads -- formats that will help users easily distinguish the ads from news images and video. Pixsy earns its money through ad revenue.

The ad unit changes on its own to deliver fresh content. A feature called PhotoSense allows publishers to choose categories or providers and customize the images.

Norlin said the service does not violate copyright laws because it only provides results in a thumbnail form, and courts have ruled that it is fair use for search engines to provide thumbnails. Original content providers are not likely to object because of the traffic the service provides, he said.

"It's their Web site that got that traffic and they're thrilled about that," Norlin said.

PixsyPower also provides reporting tools for visitor activities and search patterns, so Web publishers can respond to analytics by posting their own content on hot topics.

Norlin touted PixsyPower as "the next breakthrough in the evolution of our media search distribution business" and said all Web site operators should be able to handle searches, not just the big search portals.

While AOL Video is a competitor, Pixsy is trying to set itself apart by providing images, automation, and accessibility to publishing sites of all sizes.

Pixsy has offices in San Francisco and Seattle. Time Magazine named Pixsy one of the 50 coolest Web sites of 2006. Engineers and business leaders from Microsoft, Sony, and ValueClick founded the company.