14 DAY TRIAL // This is an absolute first, as Google signed yesterday an agreement with a television network, which allows the Mountain View-based giant to show on its Web site the entire first episode of sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris", produced by UPN.
Although this kind of moves are more familiar to portals such as Yahoo and AOL, having Google embark this multimedia ship could mean the beginning of a very big project, involving quality shows and good broadcast.
Users can watch the pilot episode, which portrays the childhood of comedian Chris Rock, at Google's video site at http://video.google.com. This episode was first broadcast a week ago on UPN, but the Google version isn't interrupted by commercials or other promo material. Google viewers will be able to watch this pilot episode until the second one is aired by UPN.
Google didn't make any official statement about specific plans on getting more involved in the video streaming market, but we can only hope that, when Peter Chane, Senior Business Product Manager for Google Video, said that the company's ambitions are big, he really meant business. Chane has mentioned that Google will start indexing more shows and all producers who offer high-quality video content will be approached.