GoogleTV

Do you have "experience developing or launching products in one or more of the following areas: interactive TV, set-top-boxes, personal video recorders, video-on-demand, IP TV or cable TV technologies"?

If so there may be a job waiting for you at Google, particularly if you're a computer science PhD.

Google, it seems, is searching for someone to "provide leadership on product vision and execution of projects that enable using Google's search and advertising technologies to enhance users’ Television viewing experience."

Google of course is first and foremost an advertising company, inasmuch as that sort of definition means anything these days. Television meanwhile is a much beloved advertising medium that offers very poor metrics -- Nielsen ratings, gathered by user diaries, aren't exactly the most accurate figures. Just imagine how useful it would be to advertisers to have a TV that reported what users were watching and buying as a result of ads.

There are probably many other Internet/TV convergence scenarios being considered as well.

GoogleTV will run very well on Google's fiber optic network, in conjunction with Google's telephony service. And why not throw in Google WiFi too, for maximum coverage.

Such grand ambitions beg the question: which industries five years hence will be Google-free?