Just when I thought that everything that could be done with video online had been done (hosting, editing, indexing, etc.) and anything else would be essentially derivative, along comes a new service that blows me away! The service in question is Asterpix.

Asterpix provides users with the ability to add hyperlinks to Flash videos hosted on YouTube, MySpace, Google, Brightcove, Veoh, Dailymotion, ESPN, Metacafe, and Break.

You can add links, notes, and tags to a hotspot in a video and – this is really neat – the hotspot will attempt to follow the object it is over until a scene change! You can see this feature in the “Stuck in tsunami” video (a crazy person surfing a 60-plus foot wave). You’ll notice that the hotspot box tracks the surfer even while he’s obscured by the surf catching him perfectly when he emerges!

To work with videos you have to register (which is free). You can set as many hotspots as you like to make your own version which can’t be edited by others although they can edit the video to make their own version.

If the hyperlink links to another Asterpix indexed video you can follow the new link and when you return you’ll resume the original video where you left off.

So far users’ main interests appear to be in sports and how-to videos. The sports ones I can imagine being particularly popular for tracking technique and for armchair referees to resolve disputer calls.

The Asterpix service, funded by NEA Capital is in beta until December when it will be officially released along with a for-pay Pro service for content owners. Asterpix is another service that I predict will go far.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.