The folks at Google just keep churning out new applications. Yesterday it was Google Video, which allows users to search the Internet for content of a number of television shows by using the show's closed-captioning information. "What Google did for the Web, Google Video aims to do for television." - Says Larry Paige.
To say that this service is in beta mode might be an understatement -- even for the company with the understated, plain-white-background home page. For the moment, the number of TV providers the company currently indexes is limited -- PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN.
Among the highlights the company listed: program previews using still images, information about upcoming airings, and keyword searches within specific programs. This all has the potential to be of great interest to paying broadcasters who are looking for new ways to raise awareness of their programming.
With one move, Google has sent a warning shot across the bow of Gemstar-TV Guide's magazine and program-guide businesses -- and even, perhaps, of services like LexisNexis, which people use to read news transcripts, among other things -- while giving the surfing masses one more thing they didn't know they needed but will probably warm to quickly, once the service builds up.
In short, while it doesn't take a genius to know that people are going to spend more and more time online, Google seems to have a certain genius for figuring out how to serve surfers -- and its paying customers.
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