From the New York Times comes news that Google is working on a set-top box initiative complete with the Android operating system as the foundation.
“Google and Intel have teamed with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Web into the living room through a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes.”
With search (advertising) and apps (including a version of the Google Chrome browser), the set-top box will offer Google a way to extend its already broad reach beyond the computer and phone to touch consumers in their living rooms, right on their TVs.
“The Google TV software will present users with a new interface for TVs that lets them perform Internet functions like search while also pulling down Web programming like YouTube videos or TV shows from Hulu.com. The technology will also allow downloadable Web applications, like games and social networks, to run on the devices.”
The NYT article reports that Google is expected to open the (open source) platform up and make a developer toolkit available to outside developers over the next couple of months. The article also says that products based on the TV platform could start showing up as soon as this summer.
As this Lifehacker article puts it, “For more than a decade, pundits have been saying that your internet connection would, any day now, be the primary pipeline for television shows, on-demand movies, YouTube videos, music videos, video podcast feeds, online radio, personalized audio streams, online and offline pictures and music—anything you could fit on your screen, really.”
With entrants including (but not limited to) AppleTV, Boxee, PlayOn, Yahoo Connected TV and now Google (and all of the TV vendors who will surely build this capability into their TVs), it seems like that vision is becoming a reality.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Gene. Interesting direction for Google. But, just turning the TV into another web browser really won’t mean much. What will be really cool is integrating TV & web to create a more interactive experience both in programming and commercial messages. Perhaps play along gaming apps could be added to game shows, action adventure drama. Viewers could comment to news stories or cast votes for contests in real time. Commercial could use links to microsites or interactive rich media and precise targeting by web analytics. or…the imaginary commercial model of seeing a pizza commercial and clicking your remote to order now. This is the TV of the future discussed when digital convergence emerged. The wheels move slowly due to conflicting interests. Have to watch what happens.
Don’t forget how much data Google has at their disposal. From Doubleclick to Google Search, from Adwords to Gmail to AdMob. It’s a rich data store of user behavior and interaction that’s bound to be used for more than just WebTV.
I agree…we’ll have to watch and see what happens. But we also have to be careful not to give up our privacy (and more) in exchange for a rich media experience.