The Register - the best IT resource on the web - reports:

“Google co-founder Larry Page has announced that the company wants the public to send in its homemade videos - and he doesn’t mind how mucky they are.

“There might be an adult section, or something like that. I don’t think that is going to be a big issue,” Page told attendees at the National Cable and Telecommunications Show in San Francisco on Monday, where he was speaking on a panel.

Officially, it’s in the name of research. Google started indexing TV shows late last year, and Page wants to use the public contributions to test its prototype video search software, which uses pattern matching to find words or phrases in video clips. And surely there can be no more daunting a challange than to identify the tattoo on a swinger’s cellulite-dimpled buttocks.

Google has yet to formally announce the proposal but Page said to expect the doors to open “within the next few days”.”

Comment - According to The Register, a recent survey conducted by British ISP Homecall found that 23 per cent of Britons cited pornography as their primary reason for getting broadband internet, far outweighing any other factor. I didn’t see this fact mentioned in the Cabinet Office’s recent Digital Strategy, and no mention of it yesterday from Tony Blair when he helped trumpet BT’s broadband takeup progress!

Ofcomwatch’s very own content guru - Mr Paul Tavener - will no doubt have some comments - so keep watching folks…