In a move that reflects Google’s endeavors to join the ongoing pursuit to combine Web content with conventional TV, a late Monday report in The Wall Street Journal revealed that the Internet search biggie is testing a new television-programming search service on a Dish Network-designed set-top box.

Google’s testing of the service, which also allows users to personalize a lineup of shows, began last year. Presently available only to a very small number of Google employees and their families, the service can be discontinued by the company at any time.

According to the information forwarded by ‘inside’ sources, the new search functionality that is currently being tested by Google runs on TV set-top boxes with Google software; thereby enabling users to search shows, both on the satellite-TV service and on video from Google YouTube and other sites.

The sources further said that it is plausible that Google will connect the new service with its emerging TV ad-brokering business – thereby enabling the company to target ads to individual households, on the basis of search and viewing data.

Google under-test search functionality – for which users essentially use the Dish hardware; thereby doing away with the need for new hardware – is different form the company’s earlier attempts in the sense that it not merely helps users access Internet content, but also integrates with the operator’s programming.