Google just keeps coming up with new stuff! An IP based telephony service, was it recently? Oh, and there was the tool to enable users to rapidly locate documents on their computer's hard drive as well. And now, it looks like they are making the move into searching television programmes. Yes, you heard that right, television programmes.

Google Video scans through television shows by analysing the subtitles provided for people with hearing difficulties. The company hopes that exploiting this niche service will prove a simple yet effective way to identify the content of a programme automatically.

Everything is currently in "beta" as it were, but work is afoot to bring these features to you, which will work by scanning through the subtitles and returns still images of the shows, snippets of text and information about when the programme is showing. I bet you can hardly wait.