Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake has always wanted his video search engine to be to online video what Google is to the Web. Here comes his chance. On May 24, a clause in Blinkx's IPO filings that requires the company to pay its former parent, U.K. search engine Autonomy, $50 million in case of any acquisition will expire. Both Google as well as News Corp. are said to be bidding to acquire the company. Google would be smart to cinch the deal.

Blinkx's technology is good. (And really, when have you ever heard Valleywag praise someone's technology?) But Chandratillake has never been able to make Blinkx a destination site. Google already has YouTube, and CEO Eric Schmidt has put the heat on YouTube's management to start making money. Merely applying Google's text-search techniques hasn't cut it. Perhaps Blinkx's technology, which better matches video viewers' interests to ads, could prove YouTube's Holy Grail.