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Watch Television With Google 
By: Doug Caverly 2006-06-08 Google is working on delivering personalized Internet content on the basis of your tastes in television. And Microsoft, one of the search engine giant's main adversaries, was granted a patent about one month ago on technology that is intended to accomplish roughly the same thing.
Google researchers Michele Covell and Shumeet Baluja proposed utilizing ambient-audio identification technology to capture sounds from televisions and identify the show airing. The PC equipped with this technology would then display related Internet content to the user. "We showed how to sample the ambient sound emitted from a TV and automatically determine what is being watched from a small signature of the sound - all with complete privacy and minuscule effort," Covell and Baluja wrote on the Google Research Blog. The researchers felt the technology would benefit home users. "Mass-media channels typically provide limited content to many people, the Web provides vast amounts of information, most of interest to few . . . . Our goal is to combine the best of both worlds: integrating the relaxing and effortless experience of mass-media content with the interactive and personalized potential of the Web, providing mass personalization." The technology could also be a formidable marketing tool, allowing Google to translate its online dominance into television supremacy. Covell and Baluja gave the possibility some thought. "A similar procedure [to Google's online keyword bidding process] could be adapted to mass-personalization applications," they wrote. "Thus, content providers or advertisers might bid for specific television segments." The researchers also specifically addressed one major concern: privacy. They made assurances that the technology would not overhear conversations in addition to the television, and that in any event, the raw data would never leave the user's computer. Google's presentation of this proposal comes roughly one month after Microsoft gained a patent for a "system and method of inserting advertisements into an information retrieval system display." The premise is that you will be shown different commercials depending on what type of television programming you watch. Both technologies appear to be in the earliest stages of development, with no product plans on the horizon. But with two such powerful companies looking into it, it's not hard to believe that personalized content will at some point become a reality. Add to Del.icio.us | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web Technorati: Google About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for SearchNewz, WebProNews, InternetFinancialNews, and SecurityProNews. |
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