Google TV press release

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

[MOD. NOTE:  Okay, I admit, outside the scope of this list ... but is it?  
Do we now have a way to search serious TV?  and More?  Try this.]

http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/video.html


Google Tunes Into TV

Google Video Enables Users to Search TV Content From PBS, the NBA, Fox
News, C-SPAN, and others 

Mountain View, Calif.  January 25, 2005 Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today
announced the availability of Google Video, a new service that enables
users to search the content of television programs from leading TV content
providers including PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN, among others. This
announcement demonstrates Google's commitment to creating innovative
technologies that provide access to a greater diversity of the world's
information.

"What Google did for the web, Google Video aims to do for television,"
said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of Products. "This
preview release demonstrates how searching television can work today.
Users can search the content of TV programs for anything, see relevant
thumbnails, and discover where and when to watch matching television
programs. We are working with content owners to improve this service by
providing additional enhancements such as playback."

The Google Video beta (http://www.google.com/video) enables users to
search across the closed captioning content of a growing number of TV
programs that Google began indexing in December, 2004. Entering a query
such as iPod will return a list of relevant television programs with still
images and text excerpts from the exact point in the program where the
search phrase was spoken. Google Video offers these additional search
features:

Preview page: Displays up to five still video images and five short text
segments from the closed captioning of each program.  Upcoming episodes:
Shows when the program will be aired next.

Search within the show: Enables searching for specific words within a
given program.

Program details: Offers program and episode information including channel,
date and time.

Change location: Finds the next time and channel where a program will air
locally according to zip code.

For television channels and content producers, Google Video can increase
viewership by providing Google users with information on future airings of
relevant programs.

"For more than three decades PBS and local PBS stations have pioneered the
use of state-of-the-art technology to use media to inform, engage,
entertain, and educate the American public," said Pat Mitchell, President
and CEO of PBS. "Today we are proud to join with Google, a company that
continues to achieve new levels of technical innovation with the launch of
Google Video, a new service that increases the reach and impact of PBS
content."

"NBA fans are tech savvy early adopters," said NBA Commissioner David
Stern. "With our partnership with Google on the pioneering Google Video
service, we enhance our ability to meet the needs of NBA fans, delivering
to them content and information in a new and innovative way."

This early-stage release of Google Video does not include Google AdWords
advertising or playback options. For more information, please visit
http://www.google.com/video.

About Google Inc. 

Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the way people
connect with information. Google's innovations in web search and
advertising have made its website a top Internet destination and its brand
one of the most recognized in the world. Google maintains the world's
largest online index of websites and other content, and Google makes this
information freely available to anyone with an Internet connection.
Google's automated search technology helps people obtain nearly instant
access to relevant information from it vast online index. For more
information, visit http://www.google.com.

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