Jump InOnline video is heating up, which means big opportunities for startups.

Online video is hot, hot, hot. Even with the rampant success of YouTube, we've barely scratched the surface of online video's potential. A study released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project earlier this year found that traffic to video-sharing sites doubled in 2007. New York City-based Magnify.net is one startup that's launched into this space with vim and vigor. Instead of focusing on user-uploaded videos a la YouTube, Magnify.net aims to help users locate, aggregate and use video on their own websites.

Magnify.net, which launched in January, is a prime example of finding new opportunities in online video. It takes a lot of storage space and specific technical know-how to host user-submitted videos, but startups can look toward areas such as video search, video advertising, niche content, and video-creation and sharing tools. "We decided not to be a portal or a destination," says Steve Rosenbaum, co-founder of Magnify.net with Simon Cavalletto, 36. "We built a solution that lives on top of this inevitable mountain of storage. We give websites the tools to discover and curate video."