Google Falls in Love with Television
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America’s love affair with television started decades ago, so it should certainly come as no surprise that Google has fallen in love with it too. The search engine has been testing some prototype technology that, if it works as advertised, could change the experience of watching TV as much as the shift from black and white to color. It might even change it as much as the advent of TiVo.
Google’s love affair can be dated back at least to January 2005, when the company launched Google Video (in beta of course). The search service lets users look for TV programs. It searches the closed captioned information that comes with TV shows. Like YouTube, it also lets users upload their own video.
A number of observers have criticized the service, saying that better video search services are available elsewhere. Google’s video store in particular has come in for heavy criticism due to its chaotic nature and a somewhat cluttered interface, very unusual for the search engine. To be fair, though, it’s not bad if you know exactly what you’re looking for (don’t depend on the category drop-downs to show you everything!).
Google has some very big plans for the future, though. In January, the company purchased dMark Broadcasting, a firm that created technology to automate the buying and scheduling of advertisements over the radio. Obviously, this is one way Google can extend its advertising revenue stream further; one can reasonably anticipate that Google will integrate this technology with its own AdWords program to allow advertisers to bid on slots for radio commercials.
Technologically, Google can go further than that, however. When speaking at a luncheon for New York publishing executives a few months ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt expressed his belief that radio ads could be more personalized than they are now (i.e. designed to appeal to the demographic that likes that particular music). Schmidt envisioned a system that takes into account the listener’s location via GPS, as well as his or her needs – so that he could be reminded, for example, that he needs a pair of pants and should turn left to get to the upcoming clothing store. We don’t have that yet (and thankfully so; I don’t need my radio arguing with me about my sense of fashion, thank you), but it’s the two ideas of automation and personalization that Google may be using to take the next step with TV and video.
Next: Using Video Fingerprints >>
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