Google TV: Now Web on TV

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 21 May 2010, 15:04 IST   |    6 Comments
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Google TV: Now Web on TV
San Francisco: Google the internet giant is out to expand its kingdom to the living room with an ambitious new service that lets people mesh television viewing with surfing the Web. Google TV, which has developed in partnership with technology titans Sony, Intel and Logitech and launched on Thursday. Google TV, is powered by Google's Android software and Chrome Web browser, can be accessed using upcoming Web-enabled televisions from Sony or set-top boxes from Logitech that route Web content to existing TV sets. Sony and Logitech said the sets and boxes will be available in the United States in time for the year-end holiday shopping season and be rolled out internationally next year. Google TV, which promises to extend the Internet search and advertising giants reach into the lucrative TV ad market. Initially, advertising served on Google TV will be the same as seen now by television viewers or Web surfers but the Internet firm said it is pondering ways to tailor advertising to the platform. Google TV product manager Salahuddin Choudhary said in a blog post that Google TV will allow TV viewers to get "all the (TV) channels and shows you normally watch and all of the websites you browse all day. Google is not the first technology company to attempt to unite the TV set and the Internet and a number of electronics manufacturers are already offering Web-enabled televisions or digital set-top boxes. Yahoo jumped into the Internet television arena more than a year ago, teaming with set makers including Sony, Samsung, VIZIO, and LG to build-in software "widgets" that let viewers link directly to designated websites. Yahoo responded to the Google announcement with word that it is expanding to new devices to expand its reach.

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