The invention displays video search results in a form that makes it easy
for users to determine which results are truly relevant. Each story
returned as a search result is visualized as a collage of keyframes from
the story's shots. The selected keyframes and their sizes depend on the
corresponding shots' respective relevance. Shot relevance depends on the
search retrieval score of the shot and, in some embodiments, also depends
on the search retrieval score of the shot's parent story. Once areas have
been determined, the keyframes are scaled and/or cropped to fit into the
area. In one embodiment, users can mark one or more shots as being
relevant to the search. In one embodiment, a timeline is created and
displayed with one or more neighbor stories that are each part of the
video and which are closest in time of creation to the selected story.