TECHNIQUES FOR RELATING ARBITRARY METADATA TO MEDIA FILES

A metadata text file is used to make media files searchable and rearrangeable. The metadata file includes a sequence of relaters that relate items of metadata to segments of media files. The metadata file can be searched for an item of metadata and the item's relater used to locate the corresponding media file segment, or be used to “play” the metadata files by displaying segments in an order depending on the order of the relaters. New combinations of media file segments may be made by adding, deleting, or reordering the relaters in the metadata text file. The metadata file is used to relate metadata to media files in systems for making fan vids, for comparing the text of a book with a movie, or that use temperature readings from pots being used to cook a recipe to locate sections of a cooking video.