Google Testing TV Search Service With Dish Network

Postscript: See this article, FAQ: What We Know So Far About Google TV, for more information about the announcement of Google TV.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is testing a new TV programming search service with Dish Network:

The service—which runs on TV set-top boxes using elements of Google’s Android operating system—allows users to search content from Dish as well as other Web video, like YouTube, and to personalize a lineup of shows, according to these people.

Viewers can search by typing on a keyboard, instead of using a remote control. Google hopes to link the service up with its nascent TV ad-brokering business, allowing it to target ads to individual households based on viewing and TV search data.

According to the article the test has been in a kind of very private beta since last year. As internet content moves onto TV and even more programming becomes available, Google will have formidable competition on its hands from the likes of Clicker, a service seeking to identify, categorize and make discoverable the ocean of video and digital entertainment online and off.

In a recent survey of US new TV buyers iSuppli found that 27 percent of TVs were connected to the internet:

In addition, Leichtman Research Group separately found (via a survey) that “5% of adults are watching YouTube and Hulu on their TV screens each week.”

And just because it’s thematically related, here’s comScore’s most recent ranking of online video sites (coming to a TV near you in the future):