Founded in 2006, VideoSurf provides technology which makes the delivery of videos faster and more accurate. Microsoft says the newly purchased company, which was bought for an undisclosed amount, will expand its Xbox LIVE service.

According to its website, Silicon Valley start-up VideoSurf says that its searches are based on ‘visual identification, rather than text only’. It has raised $28 million from investors such as former vice president Al Gore, Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and chief executive officer of Current Media, Joel Hyatt.

Xbox LIVE allows Xbox computer game users to connect over the internet as well as share music.

Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the interactive entertainment business at Microsoft, comments: ‘VideoSurf’s content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform.

‘We will [soon] launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf’s technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results.’

VideoSurf’s chief executive officer and founder, Lior Delgo, says that Microsoft’s interactive entertainment division is at the ‘leading edge of connected entertainment’.

He adds: ‘We are incredibly excited to be working together on our mutual passion for creating amazing consumer experiences and reinventing how consumers search, discover and enjoy content on their televisions.’

US-based Microsoft has its UK headquarters in Reading.