One of Google's new services includes the ability to search the 

closed-captioning text of TV programs.  Here's how they describe it (below).



There are several cool things about this, not the least of which is the 

illustration of the search results with frame grabs from segments of the 

program, accompanying bits of text.  To test it, I tried searching on 

"deadwood" to see what sort of references there are to my new favorite 

HBO program.  To my surprise, it found a screeing of John Ford's /My 

Darling Clementine/ on a PBS station.  Suddenly, I was staring at a 

frame grab of Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp!



Amazing!



I'm also happy to see Google use frame grabs this way.  It helps to 

legitimate claims for "fair use" of them for scholarly/teaching purposes.



--- Google Video Search ---



Our mission is to organize the world's information, and that includes 

the thousands of programs that play on our TVs every day. Google Video 

enables you to search a growing archive of televised content - 

everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows.



Just type in your search term (for instance, ipod or Napa Valley) or do 

a more advanced search (for instance, title:nightline) and Google Video 

will search the closed captioning text of all the programs in our 

archive for relevant results. Click on a program title on your results 

page and you can look through short snippets of the text along with 

still images from the show. Visit the "About this show" side panel to 

learn when this show will air next.



Right now we're just testing this product, so you'll find programs only 

from a limited number of channels, which we've been indexing since late 

December 2004. You can expect to see more and more content as we 

continue to add new channels.



http://video.google.com/video_about.html



-- 

Jeremy Butler

www.ScreenSite.org

www.TVCrit.org





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