Google is testing a new television programming search service with Dish Network Corp according to the Wall Street Journal.
The service will run on TV set-top boxes and will allow users to find shows as well as videos from Google’s YouTube. It will also lets users to personalize a line of shows, according to the report.
Companies from small to large have been trying for years to marry the Web and TV. Even Apple’s product, Apple TV didn’t take off. Just last week, TiVo introduced a new digital video recorder that blends TV programs with online content.
Google hopes to avoid the many reasons that made such efforts fail in the past by working directly with the operators hardware rather than having consumer purchase additional equipment.
Google began testing the service last year with a small number of the company’s employees. Both companies declined to comment on the speculation.
According to the journal, users can search by typing queries, using a regular keyboard rather than a remote control.
Google is also talking to other companies and trying to lure them to user its Android operating system to offer a broader range of programming and in return, Google can target ads to individual households.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in a January interview that it “makes sense that people would use Android as an operating system for set-top boxes and buddy boxes and TVs”
If Google is successful in connecting its search service to TV, it will open up a whole new revenue stream and it could better position its Google TV Ads service.
