Arnold may not be back, but that doesn't mean a franchise can't move forward on its own.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) stand to see some nice revenue generation for their studio segments in 2009 via a new sequel in the Terminator franchise, to be called Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Sony will take international distribution chores, while Time Warner will handle the domestic side of things.

As a fan of the Terminator series, I can tell you that it will be great to see another entry. And it will also be exciting to see if the brand can be carried by someone else other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. In fact, Christian Bale is set to play John Connor, the future rebel who battles Skynet and its evil cyborg army.

In one of the first public attempts by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to give customers incredibly customized information, the web search leader is poised to build the strongest database yet of detailed human behavior. How does it do this? By storing web searches (and for news, video, etc.) and preferences for its customers. Then, it will take that information to build a model of each Google customer and use that expansive material to give customers advice on making important decisions about their own lives.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was heard saying, "The goal is to enable Google users to ask questions such as 'What shall I do tomorrow?' and 'What job shall I take?'" -- and that says it all. Google's aim is to be the first artificially intelligent and global network that "knows" about its customers from every angle and can suggest things to them on a personal and custom scale. Is Google becoming the Skynet of the Terminator films? Hardly, but the goal of the company is to enable the most relevant information and render it when needed. Right now, that realm sits squarely in web search, but is expanding rapidly.

Google has already showed (profitably, I might add) that if it can engage the customer in a non-intrusive way and suggest things (advertisements) that fit the customer, then the customer will respond ... and respond ... and respond. Will customers care that Google has so much personal information on their online habits? If it helps those customers be more productive and eases the load on life because of an "information-available-anywhere" type of approach, perhaps not.