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BT Search Engine Could Rival Google

Posted on: Monday, 31 October 2005, 18:00 CST

By Tony Glover, The Business, London

Oct. 30--BT is developing a search engine for its new internet television service that could rival Google.

The search engine, yet to be named, will initially take the form of an electronic programme guide (EPG) designed to help internet subscribers navigate the vast range of television and video content that BT intends to make available to its broadband internet subscribers next autumn. But BT is also planning to develop its EPG in ways that could generate Google-style revenues.

Andrew Burke, chief executive of BT Entertainment, told The Business: "We can see ways -- paid search or more likely valuable branded presence -- in which the EPG has economic value in the mid-term. We do see the search technology within the EPG getting more sophisticated over time as the amount of content on offer both increases and diversifies."

While Google mostly searches text and picture-based content, BT's EPG will have to deal with the vast range of video and audio material now becoming available online.

"The trick will be to blend the diverse and extensive internet with the consistency and simplicity demanded from a television EPG. This is not simple. We know we need to ensure that the anarchic interface that is the browser is simplified and regimented to work on television. We intend to be as 'open' as we can to encourage innovation and to ride the internet 'wave' but also to ensure a common 'look and feel' which is extremely important to the television consumer," said Burke.

The choice will be so vast that, in order to avoid customers developing a kind of choice fatigue, BT will have to develop an increasingly "intelligent' search engine that responds to individual customer tastes.

"We are developing strong information systems that learn from our consumers' choices. We plan to offer personal recommendations in a 'people like you watched programmes like this' fashion," said Burke.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Business, London

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BTY, BTA, GOOG,

Source: Sunday Business

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