Google TV to Meld Web and Channel Surfing
Google has decided to open up a new front, and this time it's right in your living room. At a conference today in San Francisco, Google announced Google TV, a plan to wed the search intelligence and content of the Internet with the viewing pleasure of a television.
From their couches, for starters, people with Google TV will be able to surf the net on the big screen and search for their favorite TV shows rather than navigate cable company viewing guides.
"With the web, finding and accessing interesting content is fast and often as easy as a search," wrote Salahuddin Choudhary, the product manager for Google TV in the official Google blog. "But the web still lacks many of the great features and the high-quality viewing experience that the TV offers."
Google TV will be built into some new TVs sold by Sony later this year and also be available in a box made by Logitech to connect to other sets. The product will run on the Android operating system used for smart phones and have Intel computer chips powering it.
Similar efforts to integrate the world of the Internet with TV by companies such as TiVo, Roku and more have brought online videos to the boob tube , for example, but in general the two realms have remained remarkably distinct.
Google thinks it may be more successful largely because of the popularity of its Android software, according to the New York Times. Because Android is open source, Web developers will be free to come up with their own ways to engage consumers, make innovative Google TV-ready Web sites and overall expand what Google TV can do.
"We’re looking forward to seeing all of the ways developers will use this new platform," Choudhary wrote.
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