With Tivo prepared to offer searchable, downloadable advertising, I wonder if it enhances or detracts from a Google acquisition? In a previous post, I thought a Tivo-Google marriage made sense because it would offer Google an easy and relatively inexpensive way to establish a foothold in the television market. Now, I'm not so sure. If Google is interested in this market, there are other routes it can take other than spending $500-million on Tivo. For example, it could sign deals with cablecos such as Comcast, which appears to be a strong Google ally, to offer AdSense/keyword advertising on a PVR device. Google could also strike deals with a DVR makers to produce a low-cost product with Google AdSense as a built-in feature. As Om Malik points out in the latest issue of Business 2.0, Google M&A strategy is focused on technology and people rather than full-fledged companies. This pretty much eliminates Tivo as a takeover candidate - not even taking into account the competition it's facing from cablecos, satellite TV and, increasingly, telcos. A more likley scenario is Google deals with a wide variety of service providers to create revenue-sharing advertising opportunities in whiche content and relevant-based advertising are seamlessly merged. So where does leave Tivo? I suspect it will carry on with its throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks strategy until something works.