Google's announcement that Ann Mathers has joined the board brings a shot of Hollywood to Google. Among the leading search companies, Yahoo! has the closest and deepest ties to the movie industry and the most evident ambition to be a video platform. But there's no reason to suppose that Google won't include films in its grand organizational plan. Mather was an executive at Disney from 1992 to 2004, holding CFO and related positions at Buena Vista International and Pixar. In the 1980s she worked at Paramount. Joining the board is not quite the same as taking an executive job, but the appointment nonetheless seems to point Google in a new direction.
