Business 2.0 writer Chris Taylor, in fanciful flight into the imaginary future, takes a look back at the early part of the 21st century to fathom how Google began its inexorable march toward total control of ... well, in Taylor's mind, practically everything. Let's hope Taylor's imagination, though colorful, turns out to be inaccurate. He sees a Google that controls the book publishing business, not to mention virtually all of television. (Google TV.2: "Viewers could choose any show they wanted from the history of TV; all they had to do in return was sit through just one commercial before …

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Tim Goodman professes contempt for the programs seen every evening on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. They're way too fixated, he complains, on the travails of good-looking white people. In particular, he notes the ongoing fascination with Natalee Holloway, who went missing in Aruba, and George Smith, the honeymooner who is thought to have met a terrible fate at sea late last year.(And who can forget Scott and Laci Peterson?) Enough already, bleats Goodman.  How about turning to other stories? In particular, he points Nancy, Rita, and Greta--he calls them by their first names, figuring …

The Miss America Pageant may have lost its glitter, its buzz, and even its prime-time television showcase, but it was a big winner for Country Music Television, which aired the show last Saturday night. In its first outing on CMT--having lost its slot on the big-time networks due to falling ratings--the pageant drew an estimated 3.1 million viewers. That's less than a third of the audience that Miss America attracted to ABC in 2004, but it represents the largest number in the history of CMT, which aired the show live from Las Vegas. The upside of being on cable, says …

Conservative syndicated columnist Robert Novak's on-air outburst may have led to his departure from CNN several weeks ago, but the cable network lost little time in lining up another familiar name whose political leanings are decidedly to the right. Bill Bennett, author and former U.S. education secretary, will provide analysis for a number of CNN programs, the network has announced. Novak recently moved over to Fox News, where he is less likely to be challenged by liberal pundits happy to drive him to distraction.

As expected, the Walt Disney Company board yesterday agreed to purchase Pixar Animation Studios, and in the process obtained the services of Steve Jobs, who some have likened in his stature to Walt Disney himself. The price of the deal is steep, $7.4 billion. And, as TheWall Street Journal points out this morning, it comes with risks for Disney, which is in the midst of a winning streak. But the upside proved to be irresistible for the Disney board: the company now controls the most consistently successful animation hitmaker in the industry. And, after a period of less …

As television industry observers chew over the meaning of the surprise announcement yesterday that UPN and The WB were combining to birth a new network, The CW, one of the first questions to arise was... what about Fox Television?  How will it react?  "The ripples will start with Fox," Marc Schacher, a Tribune programmming executive, told TV Week.  As it turns out, Fox stations will need to program for several hours for at least eight of its stations which currently are affiliated with UPN. Those affiliates will be lost in the fall when UPN shuts down in anticipation of …

Last year was a disappointment for the motion picture industry. Various explanations have been offered--everything from bad weather to, of course, crummy films. But the most worrisome explanation may well be the most telling: consumers are increasingly finding they needn't spend their money for in-theater films when they can just as easily see those pictures elsewhere, and less expensively. Like on DVD releases, for example--or on video-on-demand. Those products ultimately still make money for the Hollywood studios, but the business model appears to be changing rapidly for the film industry. And for the cinema owners, these may indeed be troubled …

Against a steady wave of skepticism that TV on mobile-phone screens will have broad consumer appeal, "actual trials have roused an entirely different reaction," writes Heidi Dawley at Media Life. Last week two small-scale studies in Britain demonstrated that consumers who actually had an opportunity to test the tiny devices were favorably disposed toward them. A spokesperson for British Telecommunications, which ran one of the trials, said, "Not only did people say they were willing to pay, but they were using [the mobile TVs] too." Writes Dawley: "Forget what the analysts thought." Lots of people, it turns out, "want to …

It may at first appear to be nothing more than a rather tiny step for childkind, but the announcement yesterday that Fox will launch a Web-based talk show starring "Family Guy" character Stewie may yet turn out to be another pivotal moment for the development of the Web--or, at the least, for fox.com. The enduring popularity of "Family Guy," a Fox Television animated series created by Seth MacFarlen, suggests that Stewie may have a successful run as a Web chat-show host. He's got the right creds: he's callow, he's indecent, he's mean, and he has enormous interests in both sex …

Penthouse magazine, recently relaunched and now owned by a South Florida investor, has introduced a digital edition.  In partnership with Zinio Systems, which specializes in putting print periodicals on the Web, Penthouse is now available for $19.95 for a 12-issue online subscription($5.99 per single issue). The February issue, which was published this week, is the first of Penthouse's digital editions.  The Zinio versions of Penthouse are complete and include all ads seen in the print version. Originally launched by the legendary Bob Guccione, Penthouse's assets were sold when the magazine ran into serious financial problems and could no longer …