MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. and ENGLEWOOD, COLO.: Google is testing a program search function with Dish Network, The Wall Street Journalsaid last night. The configuration involves Dish set-tops equipped with Google Android-based software capable of searching through TV network programming as well as Web video. The search interface is said to be via QWERTY keyboard versus a remote control. The test sample is limited, reports indicate--just a few Google employees, rather than Dish’s entire 13.6-million subscriber universe.
Google and Dish parent EchoStar have teamed up before, on Google’s TV ad-selling platform two years ago. Dish then gave Google access to 125 national networks carried on Dish for buying, selling, delivering and measuring TV ads. The Google TV Ads platform is a self-service, auction-based system for advertisers. The big broadcast networks did not participate, though Google managed to get Dish, Hallmark Channel, Bloomberg TV and NBCU’s cable channels, according to Business Week. The BW article points out that Google has ended experiments in selling newspaper and radio ads, and pondered if Google TV Ads would likewise be shut down.
Linking the ad platform with audience search data, however, would provide the search giant an additional raft of information for its advertisers. Those now include Lenovo, Priceline, Jenny Craig, Johnson & Johnson and a few others, BW said.
