Google TV is on its way
Saturday 22 May 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter
Web giant Google is launching a service that will combine surfing the Internet with surfing TV channels. Google TV was announced by the company earlier this week at a meeting of software developers in San Francisco. Google described its ambition to unite the best of the web with the best of TV, in a move that is seen as a bid to dominate the TV screen in the same way that the firm now dominates the computer screen.
The new service will go live on the other side of the pond this autumn. Available either built in to new televisions - initially in Sony and Logitech products - or as a separate set-top box, Google TV will integrate on-demand video services, such as YouTube, with conventional broadcasts.
At a time when most technology companies are focusing on mobile services, Google has switched attention back to the box in the lounge. In a post on the Official Google Blog on Thursday, the company explained its strategy:
"If there's one entertainment device that people know and love, it's the television. In fact, 4 billion people across the world watch TV and the average American spends five hours per day in front of one. Recently, however, an increasing amount of our entertainment experience is coming from our phones and computers. One reason is that these devices have something that the TV lacks: the web. With the web, finding and accessing interesting content is fast and often as easy as a search. But the web still lacks many of the great features and the high-quality viewing experience that the TV offers. So that got us thinking...what if we helped people experience the best of TV and the best of the web in one seamless experience? Imagine turning on the TV and getting all the channels and shows you normally watch and all of the websites you browse all day - including your favorite video, music and photo sites. We're excited to announce that we've done just that."
With Google Chrome built in, users will be able to access all their favourite websites and easily switch between TV and the Internet, opening up the television experience from a few hundred to millions of channels of entertainment. TVs will no longer be confined to being video players, but will have the ability to become photo viewers, gaming consoles and music players.
Google TV will allow users to search for their favourite TV shows - among their recordings, upcoming broadcasts and rental services - even if they cannot remember the exact name of the show, just as they would type into a browser on a PC. What's more, users of Google's Android mobile devices will be able to use them as remote controls, with speech recognition allowing them to speak into their phone in order to search for programmes.
Users will be able to navigate broadcast channels, websites, movies and apps - at the launch, Google challenged web developers to create web and Android apps specifically for the TV experience. The new service, which will be available in Europe next year, will also offer instant translation of subtitles. With the wealth of choice that the new service will put at users' fingertips, Google TV may well sound the death knell of the printed TV guide as we know it.
Google TV
In a launch that made several references to Apple's proprietary systems on the iPhone and iPad, Google also revealed that its mobile devices will now support Adobe's Flash technology, which is used extensively on the web but not currently supported by Apple.
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