Google has reached an agreement to buy detail information about the kinds of people who watch certain TV shows from the Nielsen rating service. This deal points toward the direction that Google wants to go as a company.

The direction for Google is to be the expert in applying demographic data to selling advertising space. Essentially they’ll be the “go to” company when you need to sell to any demographic group, large or small, on any media whether the Internet, TV, radio, print, mobile, whatever.

With the Nielsen data they’ll be able to get more info on TV viewers’ age, gender and other personal information that can be used to further target ads. This ties in to what Google has done with TV ads so far as they begin to move into this market. Since May of this year they’ve used data from set top boxes for Dish Network to monitor how viewers interact with the ads. This new data will allow more in depth analysis of the demographic trends.

The thing about this direction is that is may help shield them from anti-trust allegations since it would make it easy to spin off search into a separate company or division without having a significant impact on their earnings. It would also diversify their core business beyond the Internet, something Wall Street likes to see.

How do you feel about Google knowing what you watch on TV? Are their intentions good, bad, or just out to make a lot of money? Leave a comment with your thoughts on this matter.

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advertising, Google, nielsen, TV