Google is to expand its video service to include content hosted outside its server network, director of Google Video Jennifer Feikin said during a roundtable discussion about online video at the Churchill Club in San Francisco. 

"We do not want to aggregate [online video content]," Feikin said in response to a question as to whether Google is seeking to become the online equivalent of a television network.

"We started it in that way to help people who have no means to have their content online to bring it online. We are now at a point where we'd love to link to other people's sites. It's all about helping people find that content."

Google Video currently indexes and searches content hosted on the search engine's servers, but does not allow users to find content hosted on individual websites or from video hosting services such as YouTube or Revver.

An expansion of Google Video with outside content would be in line with the search giant's stated mission to "organise the world's information".

Feikin did not specify how long it would take for the company to develop its video service.