Google researchers believe they've found a better way to deliver relevant content to your PC. Two of the company's top scientists have devised a way for your computer to watch television with you so
it can identify the program you're viewing and then shoot back relevant, personalized content. Google researchers Michele Covell and Shumeet Baluja presented the idea at an interactive television
conference last week in Athens; they proposed using ambient audio-identification technology to capture the TV sound on a laptop and use that to return relevant info to the PC. According to a posting
from the pair on the Google Research Blog: "The system could keep up with users while they channel surf, presenting them with a real-time forum about a live political debate one minute and an ad-hoc
chat room for a sporting event in the next." They used a funny term to describe the idea: "mass personalization"--an oxymoron indicating a combination of television broadcasting and Internet
narrowcasting. If the company can successfully implement such a system, the result could be huge for Google. Think of what advertisers could do with information about each and every viewer of a
massive show like "American Idol." The marketing possibilities would literally be endless.
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