Is it true? Could Google ACTUALLY take over TV? Seriously Google, back off – can’t we have one form of entertainment that you don’t have your greasy tentacles in? It’s as though Google is a slow moving virus; creeping through our media, carefully brainwashing people so that we gradually transform into Google zombies – suddenly harboring a slobbering, insatiable craving for sponsored search results and a higher page rank. I see a world drinking from Google cups, eating at Google restaurants; babies in Google diapers and kids listening to Google radio. Let’s take a look at Resident Evil analogy, shall we? If you recall, in the first game we are introduced to The Umbrella Corporation which has its paws in everything – including biochemical warfare. A ‘mistake’ is made and a horrible virus is unleashed onto the world; the T Virus to be exact – and what happens? Flesh eating zombies – that’s what happens. Who’s to say that Google doesn’t have a Hive throbbing with chemicals beneath some unassuming mid-western city? Movies have been warning us about this for years – remember the evil mega-corporation in Aliens? Or what about the Rekall Corporation in Total Recall? Huge companies that basically take over the world and then turn…eeeeevil. I know I am being a little dramatic…a lot dramatic even, but still…I don’t want Google in my TV.

In an article on Technology Review, the product manager for Google’s TV Ads unit made a pretty convincing argument as to how and why Google will eventually conquer your regularly scheduled programming,

“TV is becoming like the Web,” Desai says. From an advertiser’s perspective, he has a point. In the 1980s, a popular TV program like The Cosby Show might have captured half the viewers in the entire United States; today’s most popular shows, like American Idol, are lucky to capture a fourth of the whole audience. The difference is that there are dozens of channels now, each catering to a different set of viewers. As Desai notes, this is a lot like the Web: the audience is out there, but it’s split into small bits consuming a wide variety of content.”

So the idea that Google’s TV Ads system, operating similarly to Google’s AdWords in that an advertiser selects keywords and then sets a spending limit doesn’t really seem that farfetched at all. Google’s system would then determine during which programs the ads would be most lucrative. It sounds like a good idea for advertisers but to be perfectly honest, not only am I tired of seeing Google everywhere and worried about it taking over like a zombie holocaust, I am also tired of ads seeping into everything I do. I understand it’s inevitable and it has been going on since the dawn of the modern age, but cripes! Can’t I just sit back at home with my delicious, reasonably priced Snapple products, without having to worry about backhanded subliminal advertising techniques? Is it too much to ask that I can enjoy my vitamin and flavor rich Snapple in peace?! Geez…

Anyway be sure to check out this article – it’s kind of interesting and probably a good idea to keep tabs on who is or will be controlling your brain now and in the near future.