1. A video community system, comprising: a repository storing video content comprising a plurality of encoded videos and an index of the video content and being accessible by a plurality of user devices; and a video search and retrieval application configured to search the index of the video content based on a user query and return a search result to at least one of the user devices, wherein a selected portion of a selected one of the videos is shareable via an offset video pointer communicated to at least one of the user devices, and wherein the selected portion is made shareable according to a user-selected operation, wherein the offset video pointer includes information specifying start and end times of the selected portion.