John Battelle's Vision for merging TV and Search

Wow. I just read John Battelle's essay about how TV & serch could merge. He wrote this piece from a first-person, target-user perspective and it's VERY compelling. At least to me (speaking as a working parent and inveterate multi-tasker).

Half an hour later, you and your wife turn on your television to catch the Learning Channel show. As it starts, a small box appears on the bottom of the screen, alerting you to several advertisements that have appeared in your programming feed. You know that should you decide to watch them, your local cable bill will be reduced by a buck or so (or, alternatively, you’ve selected the programming option that gives you free cable, but requires that you review ads at preset intervals). No matter, that’s not really the reason you might want to pause the show and check out the ads. Turns out, you rather like watching them, as they are often extremely relevant to your wants and needs, not to mention informative.