Tivo recently announced a new initiative to allow users to search for ads, and this has gotten a fair amount of attention in the blogosphere. Some people (Nick, Michael) are more or less calling this stupid.

I have to disagree. Tivo is simply ahead of the game, in my opinion, as ad search on television stands to be a very useful and valuable thing. Here's why:

1. Tivo understands that they are a big part of making television a network good; they're about allowing you to integrate your Tivo with other products (like their recent partnership with Yahoo! and Apple), and about allowing people to share their Tivo content. As a result, it is wise for them to emulate successful network good business models whenever possible. In this sense, trying to become "the Google of television" could be a very successful business model.

2. TV is moving to an on-demand type of medium. This means that advertising will change; it will become less interruption-based and more permission-based. Think infomercial, not 30 second ad. In such a world, a world in which advertising is information, a search feature becomes valuable -- especially if there is an abundance of information, which content sharing and decreased costs of production will most certainly lead to.

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