Google Inc. is testing a new television-programming search service with Dish Network Corp., according to people familiar with the matter, the latest development in a fast-moving race to combine Internet content with conventional TV.
The service, which runs on TV set-top boxes containing Google software, allows users to find shows on the satellite-TV service as well as video from Web sites like Google's YouTube, according to these people.
With the test, Google moves deeper into a crowded field of companies, large and small, that have been trying for years to marry the Web and TV -- from rivals Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. to the manufacturers of televisions and set-top boxes.
Google's test, which began last year, is limited to a very small number of the company's employees and their families and could be discontinued at any time, said the people familiar with the matter.
Viewers in the Google test, these people said, can search by typing queries, using a keyboard rather than a remote control. Google hopes to connect the service with its nascent TV ad-brokering business, allowing it to target ads to individual households based on search and viewing data.
A Google spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on rumor or speculation.
A spokeswoman for Dish Network, which has roughly 14 million subscribers, declined to comment.