How many times have you spied a couch on the set of your favorite TV show or a shirt on your favorite actor and wondered: Where can I buy that?

Plenty of times, Jim King would bet. That's why he founded GlooMedia, a free online database to help consumers find and buy products they have seen on TV, in movies, in printed publications and on the Web.

"We want to be the Google of product information," said King, who for more than 20 years held executive jobs with Microsoft, McGraw-Hill Cos. and NCR Corp. He and his wife live in a log cabin they refurbished in the tiny Indiana town of Cambridge City.

King hopes to develop a niche with home decor and improvement products, such as those featured on HGTV and Bravo. But anything consumers see, they will be able to get.

So, for example, if one of the models on "Deal or No Deal" is wearing a dress you absolutely must have, soon you'll be able to search a database for the designer, the price and where to get it.

If the dress was made specifically for TV, GlooMedia will find the fabrics it was made from and local shops that can re-create it.

Or, since movies and TV shows are filmed weeks in advance, GlooMedia will offer a reverse look-up function. For example, a person could run a search for all the TV shows in which wicker chairs will appear for the following week.

All of this is scheduled to be available by the end of the summer for free, the company says. GlooMedia intends to make money from advertisers.

First, King and his New York business partner, Cort Bucher, have to raise money. They've gotten this far with hundreds of thousands of dollars from their own pockets and one angel investor.

The venture capital — in the millions of dollars, they hope — is needed to pay for the launch of GlooTV (www.glootv.com), the search engine consumers will use to access GlooMedia's database.

That database is under development. So far, it holds information on products from 15 TV shows, 23 movies and several magazine articles. GlooMedia is now adding data on products from every new episode of the top 60 TV shows, from "Heroes" to "Oprah," and new movies, new magazines, leading newspapers and more.

How does GlooMedia do this? An army of employees will watch TV shows and movies and read magazines and newspapers, then list every product they recognize.

They'll be organized by interests. So, for example, a person who knows a lot about computers would only track PCs that he sees on "Heroes" and "Grey's Anatomy."

"We don't need people with a college education," King said. "We need people who will watch TV."

And thanks to a partnership with Amazon.com, GlooMedia doesn't have to pay them.

For products made specifically for TV, GlooMedia is working with prop masters and set decorators who can answer consumers' questions.