TiVo, the company that made its name by letting users skip television commercials, said it is working on technology that lets viewers search for specific advertisements.
The technology, which is expected to be launched in early 2006, is among the advertising industry's latest efforts to reach consumers using high-tech products to escape the traditional ad pitch.
Marketers and technology companies targeting consumers distracted by these new outlets are looking to take a page out of the playbook of companies such as Yahoo! and Google, whose online advertising is growing far quicker than in traditional media.
TiVo said it is working with several large advertising companies on the feature, including Interpublic Group's Interpublic Media, Omnicom Group's OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, the Richards Group and the Comcast Spotlight advertising sales division.
The advertising service will let subscribers search for a product by category or keyword, then TiVo would deliver matching commercials to the consumer's set-top box.
