There are some shows such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Game of Thrones which have been integrated into pop culture so much that your entire Facebook News Feed is flooded by posts regarding those shows every time an episode airs. If you’ve seen the show already, that’s fine, but for those who haven’t, these posts are essentially spoilers.
However Google wants to help you enjoy your shows and in a patent discovered by Quartz (via ArsTechnica), the company has filed for a patent that describes a spoiler-warning system that works with DVR systems which helps you record said episodes for you to watch when you get home. How this will work is that the system can ask the user some questions to get an idea of how far into the show they are.
This process can also be automated by checking up on third-party services like Netflix to see how many episodes you’ve watched, or where you might have paused the film. Based on this information, the system could then work in hand with social networks to flag content that might contain spoiler materials and prevent that information from being displayed, or add a button that warns the user of a “possible spoiler” if they were to proceed.
However it seems that the system is catered more towards recorded shows as opposed to live TV, so if you’re hoping to avoid seeing live scores being posted on your News Feed as a game of football is playing, then you’ll have to do that manually.