The breakdown, drawn from Nielsen's rating service, typically provides viewers' ages, gender, marital status and other personal data that help advertisers choose the audience most likely to be interested in their product or service.

New York-based Nielsen has been selling demographic data to television stations and advertisers for years.

Google's access to the information is significant because it gives the Mountain View-based company more tools to draw upon as it tries to target television ads as effectively as it has done on the Internet.

Because it processes more than 1 billion search requests per day, Google hasn't needed as much outside help to learn about the interests of its Internet users.

"This is another indication that Google is very serious about selling more ads in the mainstream media," said Brad Adgate, director of research for Horizon Media, which helps advertisers buy television ads.

Since May, Google has been delivering television ads for about 14 million subscribers to EchoStar Communication Corp.'s Dish network and Astound Broadband cable service.

The set-top boxes used by EchoStar and Astound enabled Google to track when commercials were watched and for how long. By drawing on Nielsen's data, Google will now have information on what kinds of viewers are watching the commercial.

"This was a missing piece of puzzle for us," said Keval Desai, Google's director of product management for TV ads.

Desai said Google is "thrilled" with its progress so far in TV advertising but declined to provide any financial specifics.

Even as it expands its ad platform into TV, radio and print, Google continues to make most of its money from text-based ad links posted next to search results and other online content.

Google's formula has been so profitable that it now has a market value of about $210 billion, second only to Microsoft Corp. in the high-tech industry.

The Google alliance appeals to Nielsen because the rating firm is trying to develop new measurement techniques and extend its reach into more digital media, such as iPods and mobile phones.

"The relationship with Google...is a prime example of the ways Nielsen is embracing new technologies, platforms and relationships worldwide to serve clients more completely," Nielsen Chairman David Calhoun said in a statement.

Reached Tuesday, Kirk declined to say why he and his wife, Erika, 73, decided to settle the suit rather than fight the IRS in a trial scheduled for next month.

"Let's let it lie for the moment," he said. "It's a long story, but an interesting one."

In a lawsuit filed in March, the IRS claimed Kirk put the home in his wife's name to avoid paying taxes dating to 1995.

In depositions, the couple insisted that she owns the house. However, government attorneys pointed out that on tax returns in 2001, 2002 and 2003 he deducted about $8,000 each year in mortgage interest.

While acknowledging he signed the returns, he insisted: "It's my wife's home, and that is it."

During an August deposition, he said he has been harassed by the IRS since he left the governor's office in 1971, having sealed his place in history as the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction and the most flamboyant chief executive of either party - ever.

"I left the governor's office broke, b-r-o-k-e, because if you don't steal, it's not a very good job," he told government attorneys. "And I've been harassed by the IRS ever since. They had a system, started with the Carter administration, saying, 'Oh-oh, anybody who has been a politician has got money.' They've been rattling the cage forever."

He declined to say how much he made annually or exactly what he does for a living. He bristled when IRS attorneys attempted to question him about his 2001 tax return that reported $183,540 in earnings.

"I try to have people pay me for advice," he said. "Some of them take that advice and some don't pay me. It's not an easy business. I have no assets. I came out of being governor broke, and it hasn't changed."

The IRS declined comment on the settlement that must be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks.

The investment bank said it wrote down $7.9 billion in fixed-income instruments called collateralized debt obligations and from defaulting subprime mortgages _ more than the $5 billion writedown it estimated earlier this month. The result was a net loss for the quarter of $2.3 billion, after total revenue plummeted 94 percent.

The worse-than-anticipated loss signaled to investors that the financial sector may be in a more dire situation than feared because of the credit squeeze that was triggered in part by spikes in mortgage defaults. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors' 10 a.m. EDT report on existing home sales was projected to show a drop in September for the seventh straight month.

The technology sector appeared to be losing momentum from earlier in the week. Amazon.Inc. said late Tuesday its quarterly profit more than quadrupled, but it only beat per-share estimates by a penny. Investors didn't see enough reason to bring the Internet retailer's shares, already at their highest level since 1999, even higher.

Two co-defendants, one of them a Mesa man, pleaded guilty to reduced charges Tuesday in the O.J. Simpson armed-robbery case, agreeing to testify against Simpson and three others in the alleged theft of sports collectibles from two memorabilia dealers.

Behind the scenes, prosecutors prepared to file an amended criminal complaint increasing the number of charges in the case to 12, including a second felony charge of coercion against Simpson and two new coercion charges each against the three remaining co-defendants.

The new complaint also alleges Simpson and Charles "C.J." Stewart conspired to persuade others to tell authorities that no guns were used.

The revised document, obtained by the Associated Press, removes Walter Alexander of Mesa and Charles Cashmore from the case, while naming Thomas Riccio in the Sept. 13 meeting between Simpson and memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.

Riccio, who was given immunity from prosecution, is expected to join Cashmore and Alexander in testifying for the prosecution.

Alexander pleaded guilty to the felony of conspiracy to commit robbery.

The district attorney said he would seek a suspended sentence for Alexander, a golfing buddy of Simpson's. "I'm very much at peace at what I've done today and what I'm going to continue to do," Alexander said as he clutched a Bible outside court. "I'm not here to try to hurt or help O.J. Simpson. I'm only here to tell the truth."