Google introduced late Monday a prototype of a service to search TV programming, an anticipated move to broaden its search franchise for broadcast.
As previously reported, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has been quietly developing Google Video, an engine that lets people search the text of TV shows. Immediately, the service will scour programming from PBS, Fox News, C-SPAN, ABC, and the NBA, among others, making broadcasts searchable the same day.
People can search on a term--such as "Indonesian tsunami"--to find the TV shows in which it was mentioned, a still image of the video and closed-captioning text of that particular segment of the program.
For now, people will not be able to watch the video clip, nor will the Web pages contain the company's signature text advertising. But Google expects to add video playback down the road, after ironing out the complexities of broadcasting rights and business models with various content owners. Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management, also said he could foresee selling commercial-like advertising, among other business models, with the new service.
C|net
